An Iranian court has rejected a singer’s appeal against a sentence of 74 lashes and a ban on work and travel, making final a decision that prompted international outrage over Iran’s criminalisation of artistic activity.
An appeal court chief in the city of Qom rejected a petition by performer Parastoo Ahmadi, 29, and seven members of her team over sentences they received for a performance. Appeals court branch head Abbas Gharabaghi claimed evidence and arguments presented by lawyers were “insufficient,” the BBC reported.
The Charges
A judge handed the artists sentences of 74 lashes in June this year, as well as a two-year ban on travelling and taking part in artistic activities. A court in Qom had convicted them on charges of “hurting public decency” by publishing “vulgar and immoral content in cyberspace” over a concert performed without an audience and broadcast online in December 2024.
In the video, which has been viewed more than three million times on YouTube, Ahmadi appears without a headscarf, which Iranian law says women must wear in public. She also sings alone, which Iranian authorities have banned women from doing since the 1979 revolution that brought the current clerical leadership to power.
Before the live-stream began, Ahmadi’s YouTube page published a message in which she described herself as a “girl who wants to sing for the people I love.” “This is a right I could not ignore; singing for the land I love passionately,” the message read.
When Will the Lashings Happen?
It is not clear when or where the lashings will be carried out. When the sentences were handed down in June, the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre, which monitors human rights violations in Iran, described the use of lashings as a “degrading and violent punishment” mostly deployed against political activists and ethnic minorities.
The Crackdown
The dismissal of Ahmadi’s appeal comes as human rights observers report an intensified crackdown on dissent in Iran. Authorities have continued to arrest and execute people involved in previous rounds of anti-government protests, using the cover of wartime conditions during the continuing conflict with the US and Israel to intensify suppression.
Dadban, a group of volunteer lawyers outside Iran, said the rejection could indicate intensifying pressure on artistic and cultural activities in the country. “Singing, playing an instrument, photography, or participating in the production and release of a musical work does not, in itself, constitute the production of obscene material,” Dadban said in a statement. “Extending such criminal charges to artistic activities raises serious questions regarding fundamental principles of criminal law.”
Since a widespread anti-government uprising in 2022 sparked by the death in police custody of a woman accused of violating mandatory hijab rules, Iranians have been increasingly flouting the regulations. In large cities such as Tehran, women are increasingly appearing in public and on social media without covering their heads.
But the rules remain in place on paper. This week, hardline judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei demanded authorities carry out a renewed crackdown on opposition to the mandatory hijab rules. “What is really necessary is to shut this whole thing down,” he said, describing non-compliance as “nudity” and “social abnormalities.”
The Bottom Line
An Iranian court has upheld a sentence of 74 lashes and a two-year ban on work and travel for singer Parastoo Ahmadi, who performed without a hijab in an online concert in December 2024. The court rejected her appeal, calling the evidence “insufficient.” The ruling comes amid an intensified crackdown on dissent and a renewed push by hardline officials to enforce mandatory hijab rules. International human rights groups have condemned the sentence.
My Opinion
Parastoo Ahmadi sang a song. She did it in an empty room. No audience. No stage. Just a camera and her voice. For that, she will be whipped 74 times.
There is no version of this that makes sense. The Iranian government has decided that a woman singing alone, without a headscarf, is a threat to public decency. Not a crime against a person. Not fraud. Not violence. A song. And the punishment is not a fine or a warning. It is physical pain, delivered by the state, in public or in private, with no appeal left to exhaust.
The international community will issue statements. Human rights groups will condemn. The United Nations will express “deep concern.” And then, somewhere in Iran, a woman will be lashed 74 times. The world will move on, the marks will fade, the ban will remain. And other women will think twice before they open their mouths to sing.
That is the point. The punishment is not meant to reform Ahmadi. It is meant to terrify everyone else. The Islamic Republic has been losing the battle over the hijab for years. Women in Tehran walk the streets bareheaded. They post photos without scarves. They sing. The regime cannot stop them all, so it makes an example of one. But this should be condemned, loudly and without equivocation, by every government that claims to care about human rights.
