An Iranian appeals court has upheld a sentence of 74 lashes against singer Parastoo Ahmadi for performing without a hijab during an online concert, according to her lawyers. The 29-year-old singer was also banned from audiovisual activities and leaving Iran for two years alongside eight members of her band and…...
An Iranian appeals court has upheld a sentence of 74 lashes against singer Parastoo Ahmadi for performing without a hijab during an online concert, according to her lawyers.
The 29-year-old singer was also banned from audiovisual activities and leaving Iran for two years alongside eight members of her band and production team.
According to BBC, the case followed a concert livestreamed on Ahmadi’s YouTube channel in December 2024, during which she sang in a sleeveless dress without a headscarf.
Iranian authorities initiated legal proceedings after the video attracted millions of views, describing the performance as being “in violation of the country’s legal and cultural regulations”.
In June, a criminal court in Qom convicted Ahmadi and the eight others on charges including “offending public decency” through the publication of “obscene and indecent material”.
The defendants challenged the ruling, but their appeal was rejected by a higher court without a hearing, according to their lawyers.
One of the lawyers told the BBC that the concert should not have been treated as a criminal offence.
“In our view, holding the concert was not a crime at all,” the lawyer said.
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“The trial court imposed one of the harshest punishments for these charges, although fines and less severe penalties were also available.”
The lawyer further criticised the appeals court for upholding the sentence without hearing the defendants’ arguments.
“The Court of Appeal, despite having the option of holding a hearing, did not hold a hearing and upheld the judgment. It appears that the main reason for issuing this judgment was to deter the recurrence of similar events,” the lawyer said.
The initial sentence triggered criticism from Iranian artists and human rights advocates.
Exiled Iranian singer Googoosh called for greater freedom for women to choose how they dress and for artistic expression to flourish.
“May these dark days come to an end, and may women regain the freedom to choose how they live and dress, and may artistic expression once again flourish in our precious homeland,” she wrote on Instagram.
Musician Hossein Alizadeh also expressed solidarity with Ahmadi, saying he was “willing to take 70 lashes in Parastoo Ahmadi’s place”.
Amnesty International condemned the punishment, warning that “flogging constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and violates the absolute prohibition on torture and other ill treatment”.
The case has drawn renewed attention to Iran’s compulsory hijab rules, which require women and girls above the age of puberty to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothing in public.
In January 2024, Kurdish-Iranian activist Roya Heshmati was flogged 74 times after being convicted of “violating public morals” over a photograph shared on social media showing her without a hijab.
Heshmati said a female officer forced a scarf onto her head at a prosecutor’s office in Tehran before a male officer whipped her shoulders, back, hips and legs, according to Kurdish rights group Hengaw.
Iran’s compulsory dress code has faced sustained resistance since nationwide protests erupted in 2022 following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman detained by morality police over allegations that she wore her hijab “improperly”.
During the demonstrations, women burned or waved their headscarves in protest, while security forces launched a crackdown that killed hundreds of people, according to reports.
Since then, many women have continued appearing in public without head coverings, despite periodic arrests, warnings and other enforcement measures by the authorities.