Iranian singer sentenced to 74 lashes for performing without hijab

Singer Parastoo Ahmadi. Photo: screenshot from Parastoo Ahmadi’s YouTube channel

The Criminal Court of Qom Province sentenced 29-year-old singer Parastoo Ahmadi and eight members of her creative team to 74 lashes over an online concert in which the artist appeared with her head uncovered. The authorities also banned the singer from any artistic activity and from leaving the country for two years, The Guardian reports.

The reprisals were triggered by a live-streamed performance of the patriotic song “From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland” in December 2024. The video drew millions of views on YouTube, after which police detained Ahmadi and several musicians. The court found the artists guilty of “offending public decency” by publishing “vulgar and immoral content.”

Human rights activists and lawyers called the sentence a form of torture and inhuman treatment. Lawyer Moin Khazaeli stressed that Iranian criminal law does not directly prohibit women from singing or making music, meaning the charge of “indecency” has no legal basis.

Actress Nazanin Boniadi noted that torturing a woman for her voice proves the machinery of repression in the country remains unchanged, despite attempts by the authorities to improve their image abroad. She added that the contrast between official imagery and the prosecution of artists exposed “the gap between the regime’s propaganda and reality”.

The singer’s colleagues said Ahmadi knew the consequences but refused to submit to censorship and fought for her right to be heard.

As the UOJ reported, in Afghanistan, the Taliban introduced life imprisonment for women who renounce Islam.

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