Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi, musicians Ehsan Beiraqdar and Soheil Faqih Nasiri, and six members of the production team for the Caravanserai Concert were ordered to be lashed 74 times by the Qom Provincial Criminal Court, Iranian human-rights groups and diaspora media outlets reported Thursday.
The artists will also face a two-year travel ban and a two-year restriction on all artistic activity. The court ruled they had offended “public decency through the production and publication of obscene and immoral content on cyberspace platforms.”
The artists and their team were first arrested after their performance was broadcast on YouTube last December. They were ordered to appear before the Prosecutor’s Office for Moral Security in January.
The court prosecuted them under Articles 638 of the Islamic Penal Code and 743 of the Computer Crimes Law, BBC Persian reported.
Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code criminalizes the performance of any “open religious taboo” or acts that offend public decency, such as appearing without a hijab. Article 743 criminalizes the promotion or encouragement of corruption, prostitution, or acts deemed offensive to public morality via digital networks.
Women singing not against Iranian law, lawyer argues
During Ahmadi’s performance, she sang without wearing a hijab. Women are also forbidden from singing to any audience with male members. The punishment for that is often flogging.
Attorney Mohammad Hadi Jafarpour said a woman’s singing was not criminalized in Iranian law, and such interpretations of the penal code are without merit, Iranian legal organization Dadban reported.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency quoted the head of the Information Center of the Mazandaran Province Police Command as saying: “Following the production and publication of a video by Ms. Parastoo Ahmadi that was deemed contrary to social norms and values, she was summoned to the Public Security Police and instructed to appear before the judicial authorities.”
In response to the verdict, Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad wrote: “They call America the Great Satan. And then they flew to the table and signed a deal with the ‘Devil.’ But a woman’s voice scared them more than any superpower ever could.
“A regime that whips women for showing their hair and singing – there’s not a normal government. This is called apartheid against women.”