DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) 鈥� Iranian officials have flogged a popular singer who posted a song online urging women to remove 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鈥檚 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 鈥渇ully carried out in Branch 4 of the Enforcement of Sentences Office at the Tehran Morality Security Prosecutor鈥檚 Office, and Mr. Mehdi Yarahi鈥檚 case has been closed,鈥� Minuei said.
Yarahi wrote and performed the song 鈥淩oosarito," Farsi for 鈥淵our 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: 鈥淗e who is not willing to pay a price for freedom is not worthy of it.鈥�
On the streets of Iranian cities, it鈥檚 becoming more common to see a woman passing by without a mandatory headscarf, or hijab, after the second anniversary of and it sparked in 2022.
Amini, 22, died on Sept. 16, 2022, in a hospital after her arrest by the country鈥檚 morality police over allegedly not wearing her hijab to the liking of the authorities.
The protests that followed Amini鈥檚 death started first with the chant 鈥淲omen, Life, Freedom.鈥� However, the protesters鈥� 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
