Iranian authorities have arrested a female singer after she performed a virtual concert on YouTube without wearing a hijab, a lawyer said Sunday.
Parastoo Ahmady, 27, was detained on Saturday in Sari, the capital of Iran’s northern Mazandaran province, according to her lawyer, Milad Panahipour. The arrest follows a judiciary case filed Thursday concerning Ahmady’s concert, during which she wore a sleeveless black dress without a hijab. She was accompanied by four male musicians.
Ahmady had shared the concert online the previous day, stating in the post, “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.” The performance has since garnered more than 1.4 million views.
Panahipour told The Associated Press that the charges against Ahmady remain unclear, as do the details of her detention. “We do not know who arrested her or where she is being held, but we will follow up on the matter through legal channels,” he said.
Under Iranian law, women are prohibited from appearing in public without a hijab or singing solo for mixed-gender audiences. These restrictions have been in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which also banned women from singing or dancing altogether before gradually allowing limited performances under strict conditions.
The hijab has been a contentious political symbol in Iran. Protests erupted across the country in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, after she was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating hijab laws. While enforcement of the dress code became less strict in the aftermath of those protests, Iranian authorities have recently intensified their efforts to uphold Islamic dress rules.
