pop singer Mehdi Yarrahi finally placed under house arrest for medical reasons

An Iranian court has changed the prison sentence imposed on pop singer Mehdi Yarrahi, convicted for a song criticizing the strict dress code for women in the Islamic Republic, to house arrest, his lawyer said. “Due to my client’s illness and the need for medical treatment, his one-year prison sentence was replaced by house arrest with the wearing of an electronic bracelet,” said lawyer Zahra Minouei in a message posted Sunday on

“Sailing optional”

Mehdi Yarrahi, 42, was arrested in August 2023 following the broadcast of a song contesting the obligation for women to wear the veil in public. After being released on bail in October, he was imprisoned again following his conviction by a revolutionary court in Tehran in January to a total of two years and eight months in prison and 74 lashes on several counts of accusation, in particular “disturbance of public order”. Me Minouei then specified that the artist had to serve one year in prison, the longest sentence, according to the principle of accumulation of verdicts under Iranian law.

The singer released the song Rousarito (“your scarf”, in Persian), as the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini approaches, a young woman who died in September 2022 after her arrest by the moral police who accused her of having violated the dress code strict imposed on women. Mehdi Yarrahi broadcast the song and its three-minute clip in favor of “optional veil”, dedicating it to the “courageous Iranian women” who participated in the 2022 protest movement. He has criticized the authorities on several occasions in his concerts, notably for discrimination against the inhabitants of his native province of Khuzestan.