Iranian singer arrested after performing concert without hijab

This article was originally published in Farsi

“As of noon today, we did not know about the situation of my client, Parastoo Ahmadi,” her lawyer Milad Panahipour said. “Unfortunately we learned that she was arrested today in Mazandaran province.”

Local media also reported that two of Ahmadi’s musicians – Ehsan Birghidar and Sohail Faqih Nasiri – were arrested.

The news comes after Ahmadi performed the concert on Wednesday in defiance of Iran’s strict morality laws for women. Alongside the mandatory hijab law, women are also not free to sing publicly in Iran.

In the introduction to her performance, Ahmadi said: “I want to sing for the people I love. This is a right that I could not ignore; singing for the land that I love dearly.”

Ahmadi performed without an audience but broadcast the concert live on her YouTube channel. Despite being filtered by Iran’s restricted access to YouTube, it was viewed 74,000 times in the 12 hours after the performance.

Following the concert’s widespread sharing online, her home was raided by security agents and she was summoned to the Tehran Security Prosecutor’s Office for questioning.

Iranian authorities announced that Ahmadi would be tried immediately after the concert was broadcast.

Women continue to protest against the restrictive gendered morality laws in the country since the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ emerged in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.