Iranian court upheld 74 lashes for hijab-free singer

Tehran's appeals court upheld the sentence of famous Iranian singer Parast Ahmadi. According to the BBC, the woman will receive 74 lashes for publicly speaking without a hijab two years ago.

According to the BBC lawyers of the singer, the court confirmed the decision of the previous instance without a hearing. Defenders believe that the main goal is to prevent such cases in the future. At the same time, the lawyers said that they do not consider the concert a crime, and the punishment, in their opinion, “one of the toughest on such charges, fines and less severe measures could be applied.”.

Parasta Ahmadi and her band performed on December 11, 2024, and were broadcast on her YouTube channel. She performed in a black dress with open shoulders, loose hair and no hijab. According to the laws of the Republic of Iran, women are forbidden to sing solo songs in public and appear in public without a hijab. For the first day, the broadcast was watched by about 500 thousand people, and by the summer of 2026 the number of views approached 3 million.

Members of her group were also sentenced to lashes. All of them, including Parasta Ahmadi, are banned from leaving Iran for two years.

Alena Miklashevskaya