An Iranian appeals court has confirmed a sentence of 74 lashes against singer Parastoo Ahmadi, 29, after she performed in a sleeveless dress without a hijab during a concert streamed on YouTube in December 2024. Ahmadi and eight bandmates and production staff were convicted in a court in Qom (a religiously conservative city in central Iran) on charges including "offending public decency," and were also banned from audiovisual work and foreign travel for two years; the appeal was rejected without a hearing. The case has drawn international condemnation, with Amnesty International describing flogging as a violation of the absolute prohibition on torture, and comes amid ongoing defiance of Iran's mandatory hijab laws by many women since the 2022 protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.