Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi has reportedly been sentenced to 74 lashes for singing without a hijab. The sentence also includes a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year prohibition from engaging in artistic activities. The ruling was issued by the criminal court of Qom province against Ahmadi and eight members of her production team.
Concert and Viral Video
In 2024, Ahmadi and her team performed a concert that was livestreamed on her YouTube channel. During the performance, she sang the historic patriotic anthem 'Az Khoon-e Javanan-e Vatan' ('From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland'). The video of the 'Caravanserai Concert' has since gone viral, drawing widespread attention.
Court Charges
According to rights activists, the charges include offending public decency through the production and publication of 'vulgar and immoral content' online. The ruling has not yet been published by the official judiciary news agency, but court documents seen by lawyers and rights groups reportedly confirm the details.
Human Rights Response
Human rights activists argue that Ahmadi's sentencing demonstrates that the situation in Iran has not improved. Bahar Ghandehari, director of advocacy at the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, stated that the punishment '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.' She emphasized that the contrast between official imagery and the prosecution of artists exposes 'the gap between the regime’s propaganda and reality.'
Reactions from Academics
Fatemeh Shams, a professor of Persian Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, reacted on X (formerly Twitter), stating: 'If you label this blatant violence with any name other than “crime against humanity”; if, in the midst of such an overt and undeniable battle against women, you speak of “peace” but fail to hear the voices of the victims; if you pit “national interests” against freedom, justice, human dignity, and the right to life; and if you call yourself “anti-war” but remain silent in the face of a war that rages every day against women, girls, and political prisoners, then you have remained neither faithful to the truth nor to justice.'
Shams added: 'Peace is not merely the silencing of missile sounds or the subsiding of bombardment flames. Peace finds meaning only when the bodies of women and innocent protesters are no longer fields for unrestrained violence; when whips, torture, and nooses are no longer tools of governance. True and lasting peace becomes possible only when no woman is branded a criminal for working, studying, singing, or choosing her own lifestyle; and when no innocent human is consigned to dark prison cells and gallows for the crime of protesting, demanding justice, or expressing an opinion.'
