Popular Iranian singer who urged women to go without hijab is lashed over alcohol conviction

This is a locator map for Iran with its capital, Tehran. (AP Photo)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian officials have flogged a popular singer who posted a song online urging women to remove their mandatory headscarves over a conviction for possessing and consuming alcohol, his lawyer and authorities said.

Mehdi Yarahi was flogged on Wednesday, his lawyer Zahra Minuei wrote on the social platform X.

Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency, quoting an anonymous official, said the sentence was for him drinking and having alcoholic drinks, not his music.

The lashes were “fully carried out in Branch 4 of the Enforcement of Sentences Office at the Tehran Morality Security Prosecutor’s Office, and Mr. Mehdi Yarahi’s case has been closed,” Minuei said.

Yarahi wrote and performed the song “Roosarito,” Farsi for “Your Headscarf.” The music video urged women to remove their hijabs and featured uncovered women dancing. Yarahi’s initial arrest in August was believed to be linked to the video, which is still available online.

Yarahi wrote on X apparently after the flogging: “He who is not willing to pay a price for freedom is not worthy of it.”

On the streets of Iranian cities, it’s becoming more common to see a woman passing by without a mandatory headscarf, or hijab, after the second anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini and the mass protests it sparked in 2022.

Amini, 22, died on Sept. 16, 2022, in a hospital after her arrest by the country’s morality police over allegedly not wearing her hijab to the liking of the authorities.

The protests that followed Amini’s death started first with the chant “Women, Life, Freedom.” However, the protesters’ cries soon grew into open calls of revolt against 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The monthslong security crackdown that followed killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained. Only Afghanistan and Iran mandate women wearing the hijab.

Meanwhile, online videos showed uncovered women attending the 12th Iran Interior Design Award ceremony, as well as men and women shaking hands. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported Thursday that prosecutors had announced legal action against all organizers, hosts and individuals seen violating Iran’s laws.

The Associated Press