Iranian singer sentenced to 74 lashes over concert

Screenshot from Parastoo Ahmadi's virtual concert on YouTube, on Dec. 11, 2024. (Parastoo Ahmadi/YouTube)

An Iranian court sentenced a prominent singer named Parastoo Ahmadi and a group of seven fellow artists to 74 lashes each after they livestreamed a performance on YouTube, according to her videographer and local media.

The concert featured Ahmadi singing powerful, mournful songs to an empty audience, on a dimly-lit stage adorned solely with a large Persian carpet in the grounds of a traditional caravanserai complex.

Ahmadi was backed by a pianist, drummer, guitarist and bassist.

All the musicians wore black, with Ahmadi dressed in a long, strappy gown and wearing deep red lipstick, in a country where women are banned from singing in public.

They are also required to dress modestly and wear the headscarf.

Ahmadi livestreamed the concert on her own channel in December 2024, where it has been viewed three million times. It has also been viewed many thousands of times more on other channels.

“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.

Ahmadi, Monzavi, the musicians and others involved in the production were first taken into custody in December 2024, days after the concert took place.

Local media had at the time said they were released on bail, while the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website said a case was filed for performing “music without observing legal and religious standards”.

Mizan and other official websites have not confirmed the latest sentencing, but Iran’s Emtedad news platform also reported on the story on Thursday.

Ahmadi and other participants “were sentenced to 74 lashes, a two-year ban on leaving the country, and a two-year ban on artistic activity,” according to a post on Emtedad’s Telegram.

“This verdict was issued by the Qom Provincial Criminal Court... The charge against them is hurting public decency by producing and publishing vulgar and immoral content on the internet.”

Increasing numbers of Iranian women are appearing without hijab, especially since protests erupted following the death in custody of a woman named Mahsa Amini in September 2022. She had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress code.

Since then, Iran has once again erupted in nationwide protests, peaking in January before the United States and Israel launched a war against the Islamic republic.

Among the lyrics Ahmadi sang were references to Iranian young people detained for protesting against the authorities.

“The time of wine and blossoms came, the gardens dressed in Spring,” was one such line. “The captive birds, like my own soul that is in love with its homeland, are filled with longing.”