Iran prosecutes pop singer who urged headscarf removal

Mehdi Yarrahi won the prize for best pop singer in 2018 at the Fajr festival

BONN:

Authorities in Iran have launched legal action against a male pop singer whose latest song encouraged women to take off their mandatory headscarves, the judiciary said on Sunday. Mehdi Yarrahi released a song on Friday entitled Roosarito, which means Your Headscarf in Farsi.

The song expresses support for last year's protests against Iran's mandatory headscarf policy, which erupted after Jina Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the country's morality police. "A legal case was filed against Mehdi Yarrahi following the release of an illegal song which defies the morals and customs of the Islamic society," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said.

The lyrics of Yarrahi's song call on women to "take off their (head)scarves" and said the Iranian people demand that it be made optional. The music video also includes clips of women dancing with their hair uncovered and contains the protest slogan "Woman, life, freedom."

Yarrahi won the prize for best pop singer in 2018 at the Fajr festival, Iran's most important government-organized music event. But he has criticized authorities in recent years.

Another of his songs, Soroode Zan or Woman's Anthem, became popular among the protest movement, particularly in universities. The judiciary said the new legal action would also cover this song. Yarrahi has also criticised what he says is the marginalization of people in his native Khuzestan province, which has a large Arab minority.

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