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An Iranian court has sentenced the prominent singer Parastoo Ahmadi and a group of seven fellow artists to 74 lashes each after they livestreamed a performance on YouTube without the mandatory hijab, according to her videographer and local media reports. The Qom Provincial Criminal Court also imposed a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on artistic activities on all those involved, according to a post on the reformist Emtedad news platform's Telegram channel.
The concert featured Ahmadi singing powerful, mournful songs to an empty audience on a dimly-lit stage adorned solely with a large Persian carpet in the grounds of a traditional caravanserai complex. Backed by a pianist, drummer, guitarist and bassist, Ahmadi was dressed in a long, strappy gown with deep red lipstick – a stark defiance in a country where women are banned from singing in public and are required to dress modestly and wear a headscarf. The performance, livestreamed on Ahmadi's own YouTube channel in December 2024, has been viewed approximately three million times.
The verdict, which has not been confirmed by Iran's official judiciary news agency, charged the artists with "hurting public decency by producing and publishing vulgar and immoral content on the internet". The court's ruling comes after Ahmadi and the production team were briefly taken into custody in December 2024, days after the concert took place. They were later released on bail while a formal case was filed against them.
The sentence has drawn widespread international condemnation. Human rights advocates have argued that the punishment has no legal basis under Iranian criminal law. Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer with the Dadban Legal Counseling Centre for Iranian Activists, stated: "Singing, performing music and producing or disseminating musical works by women are not criminalised under Iranian criminal law. Consequently, such activities cannot reasonably be construed as the 'production, distribution or publication of obscene content'".
Bahar Ghandehari, Director of Advocacy at the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, said: "Ahmadi's punishment of 74 lashes for merely singing and appearing without a hijab is yet another reminder that human rights conditions in Iran have not changed, despite the Iranian authorities' wartime propaganda campaign aimed at improving their image". The Iranian-British actor Nazanin Boniadi also condemned the ruling, describing it as a stark reminder that "the Islamic republic machinery of repression" remains unchanged.
This case occurs against the backdrop of increasing defiance of the hijab laws in Iran, particularly since the nationwide protests that erupted following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Among the lyrics Ahmadi sang were references to young Iranians detained for protesting, including the line: "The captive birds, like my own soul that is in love with its homeland, are filled with longing". The sentencing has intensified fears of a broader cultural crackdown on artistic expression in Iran.
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