Iran: Woman sentenced to 74 lashes for singing and posting the song on Instagram

Iran's Islamist dictatorship continues its brutal repression against its own people, with particular cruelty directed against women.

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This weekend, a new sentence was handed down to a woman simply for singing in public. The Iranian legal advocacy group Dadbaan denounced the brutal sentence received by Anita Popist, an Iranian woman who sings and uploads her songs in English and Persian to the Instagram account @anitapopist. In yet another example of the severe discrimination women face in Iran, this singer was sentenced to 74 lashes for "offending public decency" by Courtroom 1088 of the Second Criminal Court of the Ershad Judicial Complex in Tehran. Her passport has been confiscated and her mobile phone blocked.

The legal group Dadbaan has pointed out that these punishments were "imposed solely for posting her artwork on social media." Iranian activist Masih Alinejad, exiled in the United States, posted yesterday: "In the middle of a war, the Islamic Republic still finds time to flog this young women for music." Alinejad described the singer's conviction as follows: "A total apartheid against women." Alinejad shared this music video posted by Anita Popist on December 14, a short and innocuous song with no political message, recorded at her home:

In the middle of a war, the Islamic Republic still finds time to flog this young women for music.

Anita Papist, a young Iranian singer, has been sentenced to 74 lashes.

Her crime? Singing and uploading her video on Instagram.

The regime confiscated her passport. Blocked her… pic.twitter.com/tIwCz3OLAU

— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) July 18, 2026

Anita Popist posts most of her songs on Instagram. On June 2nd, she also released a courageous music video on her YouTube channel, featuring a song based on the music of the famous II Adagio from the "Concierto de Aranjuez" (1939) by Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999). In this video, Anita Popist sang in public on the street, without a veil. The subtitles, in Persian, read: "I am the voice of those silent words. I bear witness to the blood of women who rose from their ashes like a phoenix a thousand times."

As I explained here in January, the laws of the Iranian Islamist dictatorship force women to wear a headscarf in public. The Islamist dictatorship also prohibits women from wearing makeup, as well as singing and dancing in public. Wearing a miniskirt in Iran can lead to arrest. Despite this, the silence of many media outlets, politicians, and feminist groups regarding this reality is deafening. It is the same silence we see now regarding the 74-lash sentence against Anita Popist.

It is worth remembering that three months ago, Pedro Sánchez's government supported including Iran in an important UN committee that will define policies on women. While the leftist Spanish government is severing all ties with Israel, a democratic country where women are truly free, Sánchez is maintaining open ties with the Iranian regime, a brutal dictatorship to which he dedicates far less criticism than to Israel. This is a purely immoral attitude.

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Image: Anita Papist.