“Six female singers were each sentenced to one year in prison for ‘unauthorized audiovisual activities, collaboration in making music and images, and airing them on anti-regime satellite networks.’”
Where are the feminists?
“Female Singers Sent to Jail as Women’s Rights Activist Goes on Hunger Strike in Iran,” by Mansoureh Galestan, NCRI, October 19, 2019:
Iran’s regime is once again cracking down on women in Iran.
Six female singers were each sentenced to one year in prison for “unauthorized audiovisual activities, collaboration in making music and images, and airing them on anti-regime satellite networks,” the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran reported on Friday.
The verdicts were handed down by the 36th branch of the Revision Court of Tehran Province.
In May 2019, a female singer was prosecuted for solo singing during a tour of Abyaneh, a village in Isfahan Province, the state-run Fararu website reported on May 21, 2019.
Separately, Tehran’s Guidance Ministry Court summoned Matin Sotoudeh, a cinema, television and theater actress, on October 16, 2019, over the way she had dressed during the screening ceremony of a movie.
In August, the commander of Tehran’s State Security Force, Hossein Ashtari, declared that posting pictures of people wearing dresses not complying with the official dress code is a breach of law. He added, “It doesn’t matter who is breaking the norm; whether an artist, an actress or a celebrity, all of them will be dealt with accordingly,” the state-run ROKNA news agency reported on August 5, 2019.
Women have always been banned from solo singing under the mullahs’ rule and were targets of censorship. In the early years of Khomeini’s rule, female singers were literally forced to stop their activities and go home, and many had to leave the country. Many others were forgotten and left alone without being able to make ends meet. Only a small number of female singers that chose to tolerate the regime’s repressive censorship, were allowed to perform before a female audience.…