On Monday, Iranian police arrested pop singer Mehdi Yarrahi for releasing a song against women’s compulsory wearing of the veil, the judiciary of the Islamic Republic said.
A day earlier, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said that a legal case had been filed against Yarrahi “following the release of an illegal song which defies the morals and customs of the Islamic society.”
The singer has now been “arrested by order of the Tehran prosecutor”, Mizan Online said.
Yarrahi was defiant after the announcement of the legal case. “Don’t cry, I am the nightmare of this judge”, he posted on X, earlier known as Twitter, adding that “let’s continuously talk about the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s murder.”
This came almost a year after the September 16 custodial death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini. The Islamic Republic’s morality police had arrested Amini for not wearing the proper hijab. Huge protests had erupted aftermath with Iranian women publicly burning their headscarves, and cutting off their hair in order to show their solidarity with the victim.
