Popular Iranian singer Mehdi Yarrahi has been sentenced to 74 lashes for a song she sang in protest against women's dress codes, The Guardian reported.
Yarrahi was initially convicted of unlawful acts in 2024 for releasing a protest song called "Your Headscarf" in September 2023. She also wrote songs during the uprising and has more than 1 million followers on Instagram.
Yarrahi's one-year prison sentence was later commuted to house arrest with an electronic bracelet, and the monitoring ended in December, and she was released. However, the return of the 15 billion tomans (currency) bail paid by a third party was conditional on the 74 lashes he received, and the sentence was carried out this week.
"I am ready to receive the 74 lashes, and although I condemn this inhuman torture, I do not ask for its abolition," Yarrahi said at the time.
The reports of the medieval-style flogging have sparked widespread outrage on Iranian social media.
"Mehdi Yarrahi's flogging is revenge for his support for Iranian women. The whip on his body is a whip for the proud women of Iran and the powerful spirit of the Women, Life, Freedom movement," said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nargis Mohammadi.
Prominent human rights activist Masih Alinejad said, "Every whip they inflict will cause more women to remove their veils. More voices will be raised. "Nothing can stop this revolution. This regime is like a virus, it spreads quickly," he said.
In 2024, Iranian courts sentenced at least 131 people to 9,957 lashes, according to the Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency, a non-governmental organization.
Photo: Getty Images
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