An Iranian music sensation, and an eight-person production team, were reportedly sentenced to 74 brutal lashings for the singer’s viral patriotic tune which she performed without a hijab on.
Parastoo Ahmadi, 29, and other artists were slapped with the savage flogging by the criminal court of Qom province over a livestream performance from December 2024, according to court documents reviewed by the Guardian.
Ahmadi sang the patriotic track “As Khoone Javane Vatan” — which translates to “From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland” in Persian — without donning a hijab, considered a Muslim symbol of religious devotion, the outlet reported.
The video prompted authorities to file a formal case — though some human rights advocates said the barbaric sentence has no legal grounding.
The folk artist and other musicians were reportedly briefly detained for the livestream, which racked up millions of views on YouTube — but were eventually released.
In addition to the gruesome lashes, Iranian authorities sentenced Ahmadi and the crew to a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on engaging in artistic activities.
“Singing, performing music and producing or disseminating musical works by women are not criminalised under Iranian criminal law,” Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer, told the outlet.
“Consequently, such activities cannot reasonably be construed as the ‘production, distribution or publication of obscene content.’”
Though Iran’s official judiciary news agency has not yet published the ruling, rights groups and lawyers who reviewed the filings argued a surge in cases against artists shows the theocratic regime’s intent to viciously crack down on cultural dissent, the Guardian reported.
“Ahmadi’s punishment of 74 lashes for merely singing and appearing without a hijab 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,” Bahar Ghandehari, the director of advocacy at the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, told the outlet.
Other singers and women’s rights activists have been subject to similar punishments by the Iranian regime, including flogging and arbitrary detention, according to Amnesty International.
On March 5, 2025, singer Mehdi Yarrahi’s sentence of 74 lashes was carried out in connection with his song “Your Headscarf (Roosarito)” to honor the first anniversary of the Women, Life, Freedom uprising, the human rights organization said.
Regime forces also led a deadly crackdown against an anti-government uprising in late December after demonstrations broke out in Tehran over the country’s failing economy.
Within two days, protests spread across the capital city, and by January, students and other groups had joined a nationwide show of opposition against the ruling clerics.
Thousands of protesters were reportedly killed or injured, with tens of thousands arrested or detained as part of the brutal crackdown — and the internet was turned over for several months to apparently hide the human rights atrocities taking place inside Iran.
