Iranian singer sentenced to receive 74 lashes for performing without hijab, banned from leaving country for 2 years

 

Iran has sentenced a prominent singer and seven of her bandmates and colleagues to 74 lashes after the group livestreamed a music performance on YouTube in December 2024, according to her videographer and local media.

The concert featured 29-year-old Parastoo Ahmadi singing powerful folk songs on a dimly lit stage to an empty audience in a historic caravanserai complex. The artist left her head, arms and shoulders uncovered, in a clear defiance of Iranian Islamic law.

The video went viral on YouTube immediately and just two days later the artists were detained by Iranian authorities. Widespread public outrage over the arrests immediately followed and Ahmadi was temporarily released the next day, before the case proceeded to court.

At a closed trial in June, Ahmadi and eight fellow band members and collaborators were each sentenced to receive 74 lashes and barred from performing or leaving the country for two years, according to a source close to the family who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation, told The New York Times.

 

“Besides being an inhumane and humiliating punishment, the 74-lash sentence against Parastoo Ahmadi simply for singing without compulsory hijab is a dangerous signal that the regime, emboldened by the peace deal with the U.S., may intensify its crackdown on women,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights.

“Two years banned from artistic activities, banned from leaving the country, and 74 lashes for all of us,” wrote videographer Tahmineh Monzavi in a post on Instagram on Thursday.

In 2022, hope for change was sparked when massive protests ignited after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in Iranian modesty police custody after being detained over hijab laws. In response to the protests, a violent regime crackdown resulted in the deaths of roughly 500 people, many of which were bystanders, including 68 children. During the subsequent “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, an increasing number of Iranians chose to defy the hijab laws. According to a U.N. report documenting the aftermath, this widespread defiance coincided with a slight easing of the state’s violent crackdowns.

 

Nonetheless, following the movement, numerous instances have been recorded of authorities whipping women accused of violating hijab rules or speaking out against them, according to The New York Times.

It was against this backdrop that Ahmadi performed the “Caravanserai Concert,” donning a simple black dress and singing patriotic and folk songs.

The caption of the video read: “I am Parastoo, a girl who wants to sing for the people I love. This is a right I could not ignore; singing for the land I love passionately.”

 

As of today, it remains uncertain when officials will carry out the lashing sentences for Ahmadi and the co-defendants, according to the New York Times.