She Sang for 'the People I Love,' Then Got Arrested

"I am Parastoo, a girl who wants to sing for the people I love." Those were the words of Parastoo Ahmadi, a performer in Iran who posted footage last week of her virtual concert. That nearly 30-minute video, which attracted more than 2 million views, now has the 27-year-old in some hot water. Attorney Milad Panahipour tells the AP that Ahmadi was arrested Saturday in the city of Sari, the capital of the province of Mazandaran, apparently over what she wore, and didn't wear, during her performance. NBC News notes she sang "in a sleeveless dress with her hair down accompanied by four male musicians"—in other words, sans hijab, a requirement under Iranian and Islamic law for Iranian women when in the company of men who aren't related to them.

Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, women were also banned from singing solo in front of male audiences. Two musicians in Ahmadi's band were also detained, per Panahipour. "Unfortunately, we do not know the charges against Ms. Ahmadi, who arrested her, or her place of detention, but we will follow up on the matter through legal authorities," he tells the AP. Iran's judiciary has acknowledged Ahmadi's case, but isn't releasing further details. In a statement released via the Mehr News Agency, the judiciary also says that Ahmadi was freed after an interview with authorities.

NBC notes that officials who enforce the nation's so-called modesty laws—aka the "morality police"—have backed off somewhat on confronting women over their lack of hijabs since the election of President Masoud Pezeshkian, a self-proclaimed reformist. Still, Iran's Parliament recently voted a strict new law on hijabs into play for a three-year trial period, which extends enforcement into online spaces, per Human Rights Watch. Pezeshkian himself has slammed the legislation. "The hijab law, which I have to implement, is very ambiguous," he posted on social media earlier this month. "We should not do anything to disturb the harmony and empathy of the society. We have to talk and interact about this issue." (More Iran stories.)