Western feminists and pro-Islam liberal activists don’t get tired of arguing against criticism of Islam and shield Muslims from debates about the misogyny deeply embedded in their cultural and religious practices. In their eagerness to combat anti-Muslim bigotry, they refuse to confront the mistreatment of women under Islamic regimes. The sentencing of Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi has once again highlighted the harsh realities women face in such societies. In a case that has drawn international attention, an Iranian court reportedly sentenced Parastoo Ahmadi to 74 lashes, a two-year travel ban, and a two-year prohibition on artistic activities for performing without a hijab during a livestreamed concert that gained millions of views online.
A Criminal Court in Iran’s Qom Province handed down the sentence following legal proceedings that began after Ahmadi’s widely viewed “Caravanserai Concert,” which was broadcast online in late 2024. During the performance, Ahmadi appeared without the mandatory Islamic head covering and sang the patriotic song Az Khoon-e Javanan-e Vatan, an act authorities later characterized as a violation of public morality laws. According to reports, eight members of Ahmadi’s production team, including musicians and technical staff, have also been sentenced to 74 lashes per defendant, a two-year ban on leaving the country, and a two-year prohibition on engaging in artistic work. The court heavily relied on provisions of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code and cybercrime legislation, accusing the artists of “offending public decency” by publishing allegedly immoral content online. The verdict has been reported as subject to appeal.
The judicial process began after Iran’s Public Security Police detained Ahmadi and several members of her team, who were later released on bail pending investigation. The case then moved through Iran’s morality-security judicial apparatus before culminating in the recent ruling. The sentence demonstrates how Iranian authorities continue to use corporal punishment against women, showing absolutely no regard for international criticism.
This practice of flogging women for actions they deem inconsistent with their moral code stems from the ideological framework of the Islamic Republic, established after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Since then, the Iranian state has fused political authority with its interpretation of Shia Islamic jurisprudence and has been enforcing mandatory hijab laws, restricting women’s public performances, deploying morality police to monitor social behavior, and imposing corporal punishments such as flogging.
It is not unknown how some Muslims promote a dangerous and deeply misogynistic political ideology that subjects individual liberty, especially that of women, to rigid religious doctrine. They enforce their Islamic morality through strict, dated morality policing and corporal punishments, arguing that these steps are necessary for preserving Islamic values and social order.
Ahmadi’s case is not an isolated incident. In 2023, Iranian authorities sentenced singer Mehdi Yarrahi to imprisonment and flogging after he released a song supporting women protesting the country’s mandatory hijab laws. A year earlier, Iran’s morality police arrested 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for wearing her hijab improperly while visiting Tehran. Amini collapsed in custody and fell into a coma after officers physically assaulted her during detention, and died three days later in a hospital. Her death sparked nationwide protests under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom,” as millions of Iranians, particularly women, challenged the imposition of compulsory veiling.
The Iranian government responded with a sweeping crackdown. Security forces arrested thousands of protesters, while courts prosecuted activists, journalists, students, and ordinary citizens who participated in demonstrations or criticized the authorities. Officials also fined, detained, and prosecuted numerous women for appearing in public without head coverings. Iranian authorities have likewise targeted actresses, journalists, athletes, and social media influencers who defied dress code regulations or expressed support for anti-government protests, reinforcing the state’s determination to enforce its religious and social codes.
The latest ruling is particularly significant because it comes at a time when many observers had speculated that Iran’s hardline social policies might eventually soften after the assassination of the second supreme leader and Shia cleric Ali Khamenei.
The sentencing of Parastoo Ahmadi, however, sends a clear message that, despite years of public protests, international criticism, and hopes that Iran might eventually moderate its social policies, the regime remains firmly committed to Islamic principles. By flogging a woman for performing without a hijab and restricting her artistic freedom, Iranian authorities have reaffirmed their determination to enforce Islamic morality through state power. Yet few are willing to engage in the uncomfortable conversation about how feminism’s core principles, bodily autonomy, personal freedom, and equal rights for women, directly conflict with legal systems that derive their authority from strict interpretations of Islamic law.
40 rounds says
It is mind boggling that in 2026 people still have to live with this brutal, archaic, and idiotic religion. Same goes for the unfortunate people in North Korea although their problem is the Kim “dynasty.”
Tim gallagher says
That’s exactly what I thought, 40 rounds. Fucking hell, 2026 and you have these knuckle dragging Muslims carrying on with this primitive crap. There are civilised, enlightened human beings and there are these unevolved Muslim ape like scum.
Wellington says
Western feminists are some of the most useless and hypocritical people on Earth. They’re a very cruel joke.
Mo says
Yes, they are! They celebrate this death cult without ever saying a word about these horrible cases.
OLD GUY says
And of course where are the women rights groups to defend this women. I guess its true men don’t understand women.
gravenimage says
I condemn this savagery, OLD GUY.
somehistory says
I recall nancy pelosi putting on the ‘don’t rape me/raper her slave rag’ when she was meeting with some muzzlims. It was called “respect”….but it’s really fear.
I recall the reporter christine am in poor’ taste donning the ‘don’t rape me/rape her slave rag’ when interviewing one of those top-ghoul muzzlims. I do believe that in one instance, she refused to wear one.
and the yearly fools who put on the ‘don’t rape me/rape her slave rag,’ to show just how wonderful they are in their *understanding* of why so many muzzlim females don that ugly rag. A true *misunderstanding.*
If those fools see this news report, will they say to themselves she should have worn the rag? Or will they see how evil the ghouls of islime are for their foul and cruel treatment of this young woman?
Just like those who arrive at prisons in the middle of the night to protest when some murderer/multiple murderer/serial murderer is about to be put to death, claiming it’s “cruel,” they are more on the side of the evil than any thought of siding with the innocent.
bill says
Agreed, I believe that the latter protesters do it because it makes them feel superior and self righteous not because they really care about the criminal, nor do they give a damn about the victims and the suffering of their family and friends. It owul be a good lesson for them to be imprisoned with the criminals for a couple of weeks
gravenimage says
+1
roger says
Dressed like that she’s asking for trouble, and not just in Iran. It’s sexually provocative.
somehistory says
The ugly slave rag is “sexually provocative.” It says….”don’t rape me/rape her”…..It says to the muzzlim male that some other muzzlim male….husband, father, brother, bil, uncle,…gets to rape her.
Women don’t “ask for it.” Little girls don’t “ask for it.”
This woman just wanted some freedom to dress as she chooses and not dress to show her fear of “trouble.”
somehistory says
I’ve seen a lot more skin on the beaches displayed by women going for a swim….and not asking for trouble
Wellington says
+1
Wellington says
roger: You’re excusing evil. Reconsider, assuming you are able.
Besides, If one bare shoulder is provocative, then depiction of semi-nude and nude women justifies exactly what? Even no more bikinis any longer? How about men controlling themselves and doing the right thing even ASSUMING the woman shouldn’t do what she has done?
somehistory says
Wellington,
making excuses for the evil was the attitude present in the past ‘justice system’ in the U.S. when a female accused someone of rape.
Her life was shredded….how many boyfriends/husbands she’d had, what kind of clothing and makeup she wore as well as whether she went out alone, in the dark; and the phrase “she was just asking for it’ was heard often in the courtroom.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Roger
Even if it is sexually provocative, it isn’t a global invitation to “come and have me”. In no civilized country can any other person rape her and then claim that she was asking for it. Only if she were to voluntarily have sex w/ someone and claim rape afterwards would you have a point
gravenimage says
What–you are saying that you have the right to rape and flog a woman who wears an off-the-shoulder dress? What kind of barbaric thug are you? Civilized people don’t act this way.
gravenimage says
Great replies from Somehistory, Wellington, and Infidel.
Walter Sieruk says
The severely malicious and vicious misogyny of that Islamic tyranny of Iran an abomination. Furthermore , the conservative news commentator Mark Levin is right when he declared “That regime of Iran needs to be destroyed “. Yes , the United should really should continue her military strikes , along with the Israeli air force against that dangerous hostile menacing “mullah regime” of Iran . Furthermore, the Iranian people do have every righteous and just right to rise up together to overthrow that brutal cruel oppressive death inflecting tyrannical regime of Iran. After that is accomplished, the people of Iran will be free to establish a legitimate , genuine, government which ensures and respects the natural human rights of Its citizens.
Ginny says
Normal everyday Iranians will rejoice. Do it. Destroy the mullahs and their regime!
(The real) God speed!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I’m surprised that when the regime is struggling for survival, that they have the time & resources to go after people for this
Iranians, it’s up to you to risk it, and resume the fighting to take out what’s left of IRGC & Basij. Don’t count on Israel, and definitely don’t count on the US
Walter Sieruk says
That horrific vicious and cruel “mullah regime” of Iran is brutal and cruel violator of human rights. Especially regarding the human rights of girls and woman.
For example, to imprison women for not wearing the hijab is but one part of the anti-female tyranny of this tyrannical “mullah regime” of Iran.
That ruthless cruel brutal heinous Islamic regime of Iran that is so unfittingly has the word “Republic” in its title ,for its called “ The Islamic Republic of Iran” [ I R I].
That brutal cruel Islamic tyrannical regime of Iran is full of ruthless malicious misogyny.
On the topic of this Islamic tyranny of Iran a former Muslim revealed that “The IRI system recognizes women as dependent upon men and incomplete human beings who need to be supervised and controlled by men and the State. This author further exposed that “Women are created for the purposes of giving pleasure to men and child bearing – functions that confine them to the home” This is a male Chauvinistic as can possibly be.
In addition this writer further makes it known that “The IRI legal system still retains traditional patriarchal bias that can be described as nothing but systemic subordination of women , which is undoubtedly a human rights violation .”
This author further reveals that “Iran is of what Islamic fundamentalists desire, an Islamic State, and the consequence of achieving it “State Terror. Instead of utopia, Iran is an Islamic totalitarian nightmare…” and “the Islamic Republic of Iran exists and operates as what every Islamic fundamentalist dreams of, an Islamic state ruled by Sharia …What followed its establishment was the inevitable consequence and inexorable logic of its Islamic premises; state terrorism, a merciless tyranny.” [1]
All this is wicked, unjust and misogynistic to the extreme. Islam had not regard for human life, regardless of what the apologists for this religion will claim.
[1] THE ISLAM IN ISLAMIC TERRORISM BY Ibn Warraq. pages 345-347.
Walter Sieruk says
Iran’s regime is anti-female, that murderous Islamic tyranny has ,Islam as its foundation which is religion of brutal cruel murderous misogyny.
Females, both girls and women m being forced to wear the hijab is part of the oppressing misogyny of Islam.”
Furthermore, a scholar of Islam with it’s Sharia had revealed the disturbing horrible truth in her book “Control of behavior and disregard for human life are key elements in Islam ideology.” Furthermore, the author also exposed that `” Women is Islam are considered unclean, deemed inferior even to dirt.” [1]
[1] THEY MUST BE STOPPED by Brigitte Gabriel, pages 171,172.
gravenimage says
Islamic Republic of Iran sentences singer Parastoo Ahmadi to 74 lashes for performing without hijab
…………………………………………….
And this could kill her. Decent people everywhere should condemn this.