Iranian singer faces action after online concert without hijab

An Iranian singer was hailed as a hero by supporters on Thursday but faces legal action after giving an online concert without wearing a hijab in violation of the dress code.Paristo Ahmadi streamed the concert on his YouTube channel late Wednesday. She does not wear a headscarf and is bare-shouldered in a long, flowing black dress.The concert, which featured no audience, featured Ahmadi and his four-man band playing keyboards, percussion and guitar on a stage in the grounds of a traditional caravanserai complex inside Iran. It was for songs posted on her Instagram page, including audio clips and videos of the song being sung indoors without a headscarf in support of the 2022-2023 mass protests against the authorities.Wednesday’s video stream appears to be the first time Ahmadis recorded a full concert outdoors, as opposed to more intimate recitals filmed indoors. A written message on a YouTube video before the concert began says: “Me Parastu, the girl who can’t keep quiet and refuses to stop singing for her beloved country.” “Hear my voice in this fantasy. The concert and the dream of a free and beautiful nation,” she tells viewers. In a song, she sings in an apparent reference to the deadly crackdown and other protests in Iran in 2022-2023: “With the blood of the youth of the homeland, tulips.” Social media users praised the stunning quality of the nearly half-hour video, which Broadcast live from an undisclosed location, the Iranian judiciary’s Meezan Online news website said on Thursday that “one group was led by a woman.”