An Iranian pop star has reportedly been sentenced to 74 lashes for performing in a concert without a hijab.
Parastoo Ahmadi and eight members of a production team, including musicians, are said to have been sentenced to flogging for a livestreamed concert on YouTube in 2024.
According to court documents, the criminal court of Qom province also sentenced the artists to a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on engaging in artistic activities.
This is based on charges that include offending public decency through the production and publication of ‘vulgar and immoral content’ online.
In December 2024, Ahmadi, 29, performed the patriotic song Az Khoone Javanane Vatan, From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland, without a hijab in a livestreamed performance.
Shortly after it released, she was briefly detained along with several musicians before being freed.
Authorities later filed a formal case over the video, which has millions of views on YouTube.
Although the official judiciary news agency has yet to publish the ruling, rights groups and lawyers who reviewed the documents state that the pattern of legal cases against artists who publicly defy the regime reflects a broader effort to deter cultural dissent.
In Iran, wearing a hijab and observing a strict, modest dress code in public is legally mandatory for all women, including foreign visitors, and enforcement is governed by the Islamic Penal Code.
The punishment for not wearing a hijab ranges from hefty fines and imprisonment to severe corporal punishment and, in some cases, the death penalty.
Enforcement applies to both public physical spaces and online social media.
Bahar Ghandehari, the 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.’
Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer at Dadban, also added that the sentence lacked legal basis.’
‘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”,’ he said.
‘The imposition of a flogging sentence against artists, civil society activists or other citizens is not merely a matter of domestic criminal law. It also raises serious concerns regarding states’ international obligations to prohibit torture and safeguard human dignity.
‘For this reason, numerous human rights organisations consider flogging not a legitimate form of punishment, but rather a form of torture and inhuman treatment.’
For Iranian artists, the ruling has deepened fears about escalating cultural repression.
Speaking to the Guardian, Iranian-British actor Nazanin Boniadi said: ‘The sentencing of singer Parastoo Ahmadi to flogging for the simple act of singing publicly without a hijab is a stark reminder that, despite talk in Washington of a “new regime” in Iran, the Islamic republic’s machinery of repression remains unchanged.
‘Accommodating a regime that flogs women for their voices and kills citizens for demanding their rights only emboldens it to continue down its tyrannical path.’