An Iranian singer, along with her production team, has been sentenced to 74 lashings for performing a patriotic song without a hijab in a viral video.
In 2024, Parastoo Ahmadi, age 29, livestreamed a video of her singing the patriotic song Az Khoone Javanane Vatan (From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland) that went viral, generating millions of views. She and several musicians who performed with her was briefly detained before being released, but according to court documents obtained by The Guardian, she received a harsh and brutal punishment by the regime for not wearing a hijab.
According to court documents, the criminal court of Qom province sentenced the artists to flogging, a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on engaging in artistic activities on charges that include offending public decency through the production and publication of “vulgar and immoral content” online.
Although the official judiciary news agency has yet to publish the ruling, rights groups and lawyers who reviewed the documents said the pattern of arrests and legal cases against artists publicly defying the regime reflects a broader effort to deter cultural dissent.
Bahar Ghandehari, the director of advocacy at the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, said that the punishment shows the severity of Iran’s human rights abuses.
“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,” said Ghandehari.
Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer counseling Iranian activists, said the sentence had no legal standing.
“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,” he continued. “It also raises serious concerns regarding states’ international obligations to prohibit torture and safeguard human dignity. For this reason, numerous human rights organizations consider flogging not a legitimate form of punishment, but rather a form of torture and inhuman treatment.”