Singer Parastoo Ahmadi, who performed without a veil on YouTube, briefly arrested in Iran

The 27-year-old artist published a half-hour concert on the online platform on Wednesday where she sang bareheaded, defying Iranian power. Arrested on Saturday, she was released this morning, according to her lawyer.

Qfour musicians, a microphone, and a singer in a long black dress. An intimate scenography and a warm voice, sometimes whispered, sometimes chanted. Parastoo Ahmadi sings for Iran. This sober – but striking – performance was enough to earn her an arrest, for the sole reason that the singer did not wear the veil. On Wednesday, December 11, the 27-year-old artist posted this video of a half-hour concert on YouTube. In the accompanying description, she states: “I’m Parastoo, a girl who wants to sing for the people I love. It is a right that binds me; sing for the land that I love passionately. » The reaction of the Iranian authorities was not long in coming: the young woman was arrested this Saturday in the town of Sari, in Iran, before being released during the night.

The artist, whose video has now accumulated more than 1.7 million views, made himself known by posting songs on social networks in support of the demonstrators of the “Woman, life, freedom” movement, who are was lifted in the country after the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022 in Tehran. The Iranian student was arrested by the moral police for not respecting the strict Islamic dress code.

Since 1979 and the Islamic revolution in the country, Iranian women have been forced to go out with their heads veiled and their bodies covered in loose clothing, and are not allowed to sing in public. On December 13, a new law came into force which provides for the death penalty, flogging or imprisonment, among other sanctions, against women who expose themselves without a veil or who peacefully campaign against its compulsory wearing, reports Amnesty International .

The singer’s lawyer told Shargh Daily that she was finally released, just like two of her band’s musicians, Soheil Faghih Nasiri and Ehsan Beiraghdar, who were also arrested in Tehran on Saturday.