Khalili said that when a band receives permission from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to perform, it should not be called underground music.
“In other words, we have no real underground bands in Iran,” he observed.
Although the Culture Ministry has been somewhat cooperative with rock bands, in that it has given permission for them to hold concerts, it has never facilitated the staging of such concerts, he added.
“Of course, I must say that we do not know the reason for this, and there has been no clear explanation,” he said.
“I refer to the concert we gave in 2003, after which we were detained for three days for no clear reason and nobody told us why we were detained. And now, after all these years, we still don’t know why. We don’t know whether it was because of the kind of music we performed. This is occurring at a time when young people need this kind of music in every part of the country.
“Rock bands have no income because they don’t hold concerts and they are not supported by any organizations, so we must continue our performances through underground activities. “We are asking the relevant officials to support us, since we don’t like to be underground bands.”
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About Tehran conservatory 
We don’t want to be underground: Iranian rocker
