A young Iranian woman who sang without a hijab at a desert concert has been sentenced to 74 lashes, a brutal punishment handed down the very day after Tehran inked a deal with Washington — and one that exposes the Iranian regime’s blood-soaked reality.
Parastoo Ahmadi, a 28-year-old singer and film school graduate from Nowshahr, was sentenced by a Qom court to flogging, a two-year travel ban, and a two-year prohibition on performing. Her crime: livestreaming a concert on YouTube from the historic Deir Gachin Caravanserai in December 2024, performing without a hijab to no audience — just a camera and her voice. Eight musicians and crew members were sentenced alongside her, all convicted of “offending public decency.”
Ahmadi is no stranger to defiance. During Iran’s 2022 uprising, she shot to prominence with a stirring rendition of “From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland,” becoming a symbol of the resistance. Now she faces the lash for singing folk songs.
The timing could not be more damning. Just this week, Iran executed Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi — two men convicted of “waging war against God” for their roles in the early 2026 anti-government protests. The hangings are part of a staggering killing spree: at least 22 political prisoners executed between late March and late April alone, roughly one every two days, many following trials featuring torture and forced confessions. Three teenagers, two of them 17, reportedly have death sentences upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court in violation of international law.
“The use of the death penalty as a political tool on this scale has not been seen since the 1980s,” said researcher Esfandiar Aban of the Center for Human Rights in Iran.
At the G7 this week, shortly after agreeing to a memorandum of understanding with Iran, President Trump suggested that he’s getting along with the mullahs.
“They’re not radicalized and they’re, you know, looking to help their country,” Trump said, adding, “They were nice to deal with. They were strong people, smart people.”
Prominent dissident Masih Alinejad disagreed with Trump’s assessment.
“One day after the U.S. signed a deal with the Islamic Republic, the regime handed Parastoo Ahmadi 74 lashes for singing on YouTube,” she wrote. “A woman’s voice scared them more than any superpower ever could. This is not a normal government. This is apartheid against women.”
Tehran is flogging women for folk songs and hanging protesters at assembly-line pace.
The only thing moderate about this regime is its PR.
