Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi has been sentenced to 74 lashes, along with a two-year ban on leaving Iran and on artistic activity, after performing without a hijab. The punishment also applies to eight members of her production team. The case stems from a concert streamed live on Ahmadi’s YouTube channel in 2024.
According to the criminal court in Iran’s Qom province, the artists were punished for allegedly harming public modesty by producing and publishing what it called “obscene and immoral content” online. Iranian judicial officials have said the concert was held without legal permission and did not comply with sharia principles.
The judiciary has not yet officially published the verdict, but human rights groups and lawyers who reviewed the documents said the case fits a broader pattern of arrests and prosecutions aimed at deterring cultural dissent. A rights advocate from the U.S.-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran said, “Ahmadi’s punishment is another reminder that the human rights situation in Iran has not changed.”
Lashes remain a legal punishment in Iran and can be imposed for a range of offenses, including moral violations, alcohol use, certain public modesty charges, and sometimes political or cultural acts recast as threats to public order. Human rights groups, including some UN bodies, describe flogging as cruel, inhuman, or degrading, and in some cases as torture. The concert had quickly become a social media talking point in Iran and drew more than 1.5 million YouTube views within days, despite access restrictions in the country.
