what we know about the arrest of Iranian Parastoo Ahmadi

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After Mahsa Amini, she is the new face of resistance against the laws imposed on Iranian women. Parastoo Ahmadi27, has been in the news a lot recently.

For good reason: the Iranian singer broadcast on the Internet the video of a concert during which she appears without the hijab imposed by law on Iranian women. A gesture which attracted the support of many supporters, but also his arrest by the Iranian authorities. Since being released, the singer has faced legal proceedings.

Close-fitting black dress, exposed shoulders and free hair

Wednesday December 11, 2024, Parastoo Ahmadi posted a video on his YouTube channel, late in the evening.

We see her dressed in a long black dress close to the body, with her shoulders uncovered and without a scarf on her hair – an outfit openly violating the imposed rules by the Islamic Republic.

The date of the performance of around thirty minutes, performed without audiencewas not specified. But it seems to have been filmed in Iran, the singer being accompanied by the members of her group, four men, in the subdued light of the patio of a traditional caravanserai.

Or, since the Islamic revolution of 1979Iranian women must cover their hair and cannot sing alone in public.

“The girl who can’t keep silent”

Parastoo Ahmadi has won a large number of admirers (more than 14,000 subscribers) by posting his songs on Instagram, including with ballads posted in 2022-2023 in support of mass protests who then shook the country.

This concert, however, appears to be the first filmed outside. “I’m Parastoo, the girl who can’t stay silent and refuses to stop singing for the country she loves,” she wrote on YouTube.

Listen to my voice in this imaginary concert and dream of a free and beautiful Nation.

An “act of extraordinary courage”

Without naming it, the Iranian justice press agency (Mizan) denounces the fact that a “group led by a singer” produced “music without respecting legal and religious rules”. The authorities “intervened and took appropriate measures, opening proceedings against the singer and the production”.

Exiled dissident Masih Alinejad hailed a “historic” concertproclaiming on a social network from the United States that “his voice [était] a weapon against tyranny, his courage an ode to defiance.”

Karim Sadjadpour, expert from the Carnegie Endowment think tank, for his part welcomed an “act of extraordinary courage” which digs “a new fault in the foundations of Iran’s decaying theocracy.”

A new law could come into force

The broadcast of the concert comes as a new law could come into force on Friday, further toughening the sentences reserved for those who do not respect the strict dress code imposed on Iranian women.

The organization Amnesty International said in a report that women could face the death penalty if they violated the text on “promoting the culture of chastity and the hijab”.

“This shameful law intensifies persecution of women and girls who dare to fight for their rights,” said Diana Eltahawy, deputy Middle East and North Africa director for Amnesty.

Source: © 2024 AFP

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