Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi, 29, has reportedly been sentenced to 74 lashes by a criminal court in Qom province for performing without a hijab, the mandatory head covering enforced by Iran's morality police. The sentence, which also includes a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on artistic activities, has sparked outrage among human rights activists and artists worldwide.
Ahmadi and eight members of her production team livestreamed a concert on her YouTube channel in 2024, where she sang the historic patriotic anthem 'Az Khoon-e Javanan-e Vatan' ('From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland'). The video of the 'Caravanserai Concert' went viral, drawing attention from both supporters and authorities.
According to rights groups, the court documents charge Ahmadi with offending public decency through the production and publication of 'vulgar and immoral content' online. The ruling has not yet been published by Iran's official judiciary news agency, but lawyers and activists have seen the documents.
Escalating Cultural Repression
Human rights activists argue that Ahmadi's sentencing is evidence that the situation in Iran has not improved despite the regime's propaganda efforts. Bahar Ghandehari, director of advocacy at the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, said the punishment 'is yet another reminder that human rights conditions in Iran have not changed, despite the Iranian authorities’ wartime propaganda campaign aimed at improving their image.' She added that the contrast between official imagery and the prosecution of artists exposes 'the gap between the regime’s propaganda and reality.'
Fatemeh Shams, a professor of Persian Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote on X: 'If you label this blatant violence with any name other than “crime against humanity”; if, in the midst of such an overt and undeniable battle against women, you speak of “peace” but fail to hear the voices of the victims; if you pit “national interests” against freedom, justice, human dignity, and the right to life; and if you call yourself “anti-war” but remain silent in the face of a war that rages every day against women, girls, and political prisoners, then you have remained neither faithful to the truth nor to justice.'
Shams continued: 'Peace is not merely the silencing of missile sounds or the subsiding of bombardment flames. Peace finds meaning only when the bodies of women and innocent protesters are no longer fields for unrestrained violence; when whips, torture, and nooses are no longer tools of governance.' She concluded: 'True and lasting peace becomes possible only when no woman is branded a criminal for working, studying, singing, or choosing her own lifestyle; and when no innocent human is consigned to dark prison cells and gallows for the crime of protesting, demanding justice, or expressing an opinion.'
The case echoes other instances of cultural repression in Iran, such as the sentencing of filmmaker Jafar Panahi to prison and a travel ban after winning at Cannes. For European audiences, this story highlights the ongoing struggle for human rights in Iran, a country with significant diaspora communities across Europe, particularly in cities like London, Paris, and Berlin.
European Pulse has previously covered related issues, including protests by the Iranian diaspora outside World Cup stadiums in Los Angeles and the murder of a Russian dissident artist in Poland, which may have Kremlin links. These events underscore the broader context of state repression and the fight for artistic freedom in the region.
