A court decision in the city of Qom, Iran, sentenced singer Parastu Ahmadi and eight other musicians to various severe sentences. The sentence includes 74 lashes, a ban on leaving the country for two years and a ban on performing artistic activities for the same period. The punishment was imposed after the artist performed without the Islamic veil in a show broadcast on the YouTube platform.
The court found the defendants, who included members of the production team and instrumentalists, guilty of multiple charges. The group participated in a performance recorded on December 11, 2024, which has already accumulated almost three million views. The infractions listed were “offending public morals” by failing to comply with Islamic rules, as well as “producing, sending, distributing and publishing” material considered “vulgar” and “immoral”.
Ahmadi and his band performed a symbolic performance lasting about half an hour in December 2024. The event took place behind closed doors in a caravansarai, a type of historical accommodation for travelers, located in Deir Gachin, in the Qom region. The full performance was broadcast live on the singer’s official YouTube channel.
The publicity of the show online led to the initiation of legal proceedings against the artist and her team. The Tehran Public Prosecutor’s Office formalized the charges at the end of December of that year. Despite their initial detention, Parastu Ahmadi and the other co-defendants were later released on bail, as reported by the non-governmental organization HRANA.
The meaning behind the video “An imaginary show” and the ban on female artists
The title chosen for the performance video, “An imaginary show”, carries deep symbolism, making a direct reference to the restrictions imposed on female artists in Iran. The country’s laws prohibit singers from performing alone in front of an audience. In the recording that led to the conviction, Ahmadi appears singing without accompaniment, with her hair exposed and wearing a black dress with straps, a clear violation of current regulations. The choice of an “imaginary show” as the title for the veilless performance highlights the audacity of the gesture, symbolically defying the severe restrictions imposed on women in Iranian art and public life, a scenario that gained global visibility following the 2022 protests.
Born in 1997, Parastu Ahmadi has a degree in film directing from Soore University, located in Tehran. His notoriety began to grow after performing a patriotic song during the 2022 anti-government demonstrations. Those protests were triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, who was in police custody for allegedly not wearing the Islamic veil properly.