Iranian singer flogged 74 times for not wearing hijab during live performance: Who is Parastoo Ahmadi?

Singer Parastoo Ahmadi was flogged 74 times by Iranian authorities for not covering her head during a concert streamed live on YouTube and for posting “vulgar and immoral content,” The Guardian reported.

The sentence, which reportedly includes a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on artistic activity, has not yet been made public, the report added.

Since shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, all women in Iran have been required by law to cover their heads and necks.

According to Bahar Ghandehari of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, the flogging sentence highlights what rights groups see as an attempt by Iranian authorities to discourage cultural dissent and silence independent artistic voices.

“Ahmadi’s punishment of 74 lashes for merely singing and performing without a hijab is yet another reminder that human rights conditions in Iran have not changed, despite a wartime propaganda campaign by the Iranian authorities to improve their image,” Ghandehari told The Guardian.

“Apartheid Against Women”

Journalist Masih Alinejad said in a post on X that the Iranian government seems to see the female vote as a bigger threat than any global superpower.

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“A regime that flogs women for showing their hair and singing, there is no normal government. This is called apartheid against women,” Alinejad wrote.

Parastoo Ahmadi and other musicians named in the case have not yet publicly commented on the flogging or the ban.

The Iranian government’s enforcement of strict modesty regulations has sparked widespread outrage on social media.

One user X said: “How terrifying must be an ideology – a ‘religion’ – in which female singing is punished almost as severely as kidnapping and rape.

Others argued that such “crimes” should not go unchallenged.

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Another user asked how singing could be considered a crime in the 21st century, writing: “In what world is singing a crime punishable by 74 lashes?”

Meanwhile, one user X described the Islamic Republic of Iran as “the enemy of women, music, joy and life itself”. Iran

Who is Parastoo Ahmadi?

Iranian singer-songwriter Parastoo Ahmadi rose to international prominence after openly challenging the restrictions placed on female artists in the country.

She attracted worldwide attention in December 2024 when she held what she described as an “imaginary concert” in a historic caravanserai in Iran. During the performance, Ahmadi appeared without a head covering and wore a sleeveless black dress and live-streamed the event on YouTube.

Read also | ‘I condemn it in very strong words’: Javed Akhtar calls on Nitish Kumar for unconditional apology over hijab incident

The concert quickly gained popularity online and was widely shared by supporters of the Women, Life, Freedom movement that emerged after the death of Mahsa Amini in moral police custody in 2022.

The sentence imposed on Ahmadi drew criticism from activists and public figures. Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer at Dadban, a legal consultancy group that supports Iranian activists, argued that the sentence lacked legal basis.

Khazaeli said, “Singing, performing music, and producing or disseminating musical works by women are not criminalized under Iranian criminal law. Consequently, such activities cannot reasonably be construed as ‘producing, distributing or publishing obscene content.’