Iran Singer Performs At Virtual Concert, Arrested For Not Wearing Hijab

A 27-year-old Iranian singer has been arrested after performing in a virtual concert on YouTube without wearing a hijab, Times of Israel reported. 

Parastoo Ahmady was detained on Saturday in the city of Sari, in Mazandaran province, around 280 km from Iran's capital Tehran, according to her lawyer Milad Panahipour. Her arrest followed a case filed on Thursday after she posted her concert online, where she was seen performing in a sleeveless black dress, her hair uncovered, alongside four male musicians.

"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. Here, in this part of our beloved Iran, where history and our myths intertwine, hear my voice in this imaginary concert and imagine this beautiful homeland," Ms Ahmady wrote in a post accompanying the video on YouTube. 

The concert has garnered over 1.5 million views on the video-sharing platform.

According to the report, the lawyer also confirmed that two of the male musicians, Soheil Faghih Nasiri and Ehsan Beiraghdar, were arrested in Tehran on the same day.

The hijab was mandated by Iranian law in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution. While many women wear it as an expression of religious faith, others view its enforcement as a restriction on personal freedom.

Protests erupted across Iran in 2022 following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being detained for allegedly failing to comply with the dress code.