An Iranian court sentenced singer Parastoo Ahmadi and seven other artists to 74 lashes each for broadcasting a concert on YouTube, according to her videographer and local media.
In this performance, broadcast live in December 2024 and online since, Parastoo Ahmadi performed songs imbued with strength and melancholy in front of an empty room, on a dimly lit stage decorated with a simple Persian carpet, within the confines of a traditional caravanserai.
She was accompanied by a pianist, a drummer, a guitarist and a bassist, all dressed in black, while she wore a long strappy dress, her lips painted in red.
In Iran, women are not allowed to sing in public. They are also required to wear covering clothing that does not reveal their shapes and to wear the veil. The concert was viewed three million times on the singer’s YouTube channel, and thousands more times on other networks.
“Two years banned from exercising any artistic activity and leaving the country and 74 lashes for all of us,” videographer Tahmineh Monzavi wrote on Instagram on Thursday.
The latter as well as Parastoo Ahmadi, the musicians and other people involved in the production were placed in pre-trial detention a few days after the broadcast of the concert.
Iranian media then announced their release on bail, while the online judicial information site Mizan Online highlighted that a complaint had been filed for performing songs “without respect for legal and religious norms”.
“Vulgar and immoral” content
Mizan and other official websites did not confirm the 74 lashes sentence, but Iranian news platform Emtedad reported the news on Thursday.
According to Emtedad, the sentence was handed down by the Provincial Criminal Court of Qom, a holy city in northern Iran, on the charge of “indecent exposure for producing and disseminating vulgar and immoral content on the internet.”
More and more Iranian women are appearing without hijab, especially since the protests that erupted after the death in detention in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini, arrested for violating the dress code.
Iran was again rocked by nationwide protests, which reached their peak in January, before the United States and Israel went to war against that country. Among the words repeated by Parastoo Ahmadi were references to young Iranians detained for protesting against the authorities.
