Iranian Protest Singer Yarrahi Sentenced to Prison, Flogging

Mehdi Yarrahi, an Iranian singer who released a song last year criticizing compulsory headscarf rules in the country, has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison, as well as 74 lashes, his legal representative says.

Lawyer Zahra Minoui announced on January 9 that the sentence was handed down by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.

She did not say on which charges her client had been convicted.

Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code qualifies Yarrahi for a one-year reduction of Yarrahi’s prison term.

The flogging sentence sparked harsh criticism from human rights groups, which consider this form of punishment as judicially-sanctioned torture.

The country’s Islamic Penal Code provides for various corporal punishments, including flogging, amputation, blinding, crucifixion and stoning.

Yarrahi was arrested in August last year and later released from custody after a fellow artist posted a 15-billion-toman ($300,000) bond.

Yarrahi was arrested following the release of his song Roosarito, or Your Headscarf in English, which was accompanied by a video showing women in various social settings without their mandatory headscarves, some dancing to the music.

Yarrahi dedicated the song to the "brave women of Iran who shine courageously at the forefront of the ‘Women Life Freedom’ movement,’" a reference to the monthslong nationwide protests sparked by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while she was in police custody for an alleged hijab violation.

As a protest against the singer’s arrest, Iranian social media users posted and shared videos of their own dance performances and renditions of his songs.

Artists, political activists and journalists also rallied behind the singer after his jailing.