Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi has been sentenced to 74 lashes and banned from leaving the country for two years after a YouTube video showed her singing without a head covering. According to The Guardian, a criminal court in the city of Qom convicted her of producing and distributing what authorities described as “vulgar and immoral” online content.
Eight of Ahmadi’s associates who were involved in the performance were also convicted. The video, uploaded to her YouTube account in 2024, showed Ahmadi performing a concert in which she sang, among other pieces, the Iranian classic “Az Khoon-e Javanan-e Vatan” (“From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland”).
Ahmadi had previously performed that song during Iran’s 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests. Those demonstrations erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was beaten to death by morality police over the way she wore her hijab.
The filmed performance went viral and drew millions of views. Ahmadi was arrested after the video spread, later released, but the criminal proceedings against her continued.
