IRANIAN SINGER SENTENCED TO 74 LASHES FOR PERFORMING WITHOUT HIJAB

Parastoo Ahmadi and eight members of a production team have been sentenced to 74 lashes by a criminal court in Qom province, according to court documents reviewed by rights groups and lawyers. The sentences were issued following a livestreamed concert on Ahmadi's YouTube channel in December 2024, in which the singer performed a patriotic song without a hijab. The artists also received a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on engaging in artistic activities. The charges against them include offending public decency through the production and publication of "vulgar and immoral content" online.

Ahmadi, a 29-year-old singer, performed the song Az Khoone Javanane Vatan (From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland) in the livestreamed performance, which subsequently accumulated millions of views. She was briefly detained along with several musicians following the video's release before being freed. Authorities then filed a formal case regarding the publication of the video. The official judiciary news agency has not yet published the ruling.

Bahar Ghandehari, director of advocacy at the US-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran, characterised the punishment as a further indicator of human rights conditions in the country. Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer at Dadban, a legal counselling centre for Iranian activists, stated the sentence lacked legal basis, noting that singing, performing music and producing or disseminating musical works by women are not criminalised under Iranian criminal law. Rights groups said the arrests and legal cases against artists reflect a broader effort to deter cultural dissent.