Iranian authorities arrested 27-year-old singer Parastoo Ahmady Saturday after she performed in an online concert on YouTube without wearing a hijab.
The video which went up on YouTube on Wednesday features Ahmady in a long black sleeveless dress alongside four male musicians. In her post, she declared: “I am Parastoo, 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.” It has garnered over 1.4 million views.
The judiciary filed a case on the singer on Thursday, a day after her performance online.
On Saturday, Ahmady was detained in Sari, the capital of Mazandaran Province, according to Iranian lawyer Milad Panahipour. “Unfortunately, we do not know the charges against Ms Ahmady, who arrested her, or her place of detention, but we will follow up on the matter through legal authorities,” the lawyer was quoted as saying by news agency Associated Press (AP).
Panahipour also confirmed that two members of Ahmady’s band — Soheil Faghih Nasiri and Ehsan Beiraghdar –were arrested at their music studio in Tehran on the same day.
He also expressed concerns about the increasing crackdown on women’s freedoms in Iran, highlighting Ahmady’s case as an example of escalating tensions between authorities and those defying restrictions.
Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iranian laws have prohibited women from singing solo before mixed-gender audiences or appearing without a hijab in the presence of unrelated men. Women can only perform in all-female audiences or as part of a chorus. The hijab has become both a religious requirement and a political symbol, mandatory since the years following the revolution.
Protests erupted across Iran in 2022 following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. Though enforcement of the dress code softened briefly, authorities have recently adopted a stricter tone.
— With inputs from AP and DW
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