In Iran, going on stage can become an act of disobedience. For Hiva Seyfizadeh, a traditional music performance ended with an arrest and now a four-year prison sentence. The artist was arrested while giving a concert in Tehran in which there were men in the audience.
The conviction has been denounced by the organization Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which points out that Seyfizadeh has requested that his case be reviewed through an “independent and exhaustive” appeal process.
The episode is framed in the restrictions that have limited women’s performances in Iran for decades and in a period of special pressure on artists who have publicly questioned the norms imposed by the Islamic Republic.
The action that ended with Seyfizadeh’s arrest
Seyfizadeh, a traditional music singer and classical music teacher, was arrested in February 2025 during a performance at the Rooberoo Mansion complex in Tehran. The authorities interrupted the concert while the artist performed the third solo piece. Members of her gang were arrested along with her.
At that time, the defense maintained that the action did not have the required authorization and that the presence of men in the room had contributed to triggering the police intervention. The Iranian Ministry of Culture later confirmed the arrest of the singer and members of her group and attributed the closure of the concert to the lack of a permit.
According to information released at the time by Iranian media, the authorities also indicated that Seyfizadeh was singing alone. Iranian restrictions prevent women from performing solo songs before mixed audiences, while female performances are allowed under certain conditions, including that the audience be exclusively female.
The singer was later released on bail.
A prohibition that especially affects women. Seyfizadeh’s case once again puts on the table one of the most unique limitations of the Iranian cultural system: women can develop their musical activity, but they encounter important restrictions when it comes to singing in public.
Women cannot perform as soloists before a mixed audience and female performances take place, under current regulations, before exclusively female audiences. Public radio and television also do not broadcast performances by women alone.
These restrictions have not prevented some artists from seeking alternative spaces to perform and disseminate their music, especially through the internet. In recent years, some performances have become acts of open defiance of these norms.
The precedent of Parastoo Ahmadi
One of the best-known cases is that of the singer Parastoo Ahmadi. In December 2024, she broadcast on YouTube a concert recorded in an Iranian caravanserai in which she appeared without a veil and sang accompanied by male musicians, although there was no in-person audience.
The performance quickly became an internet phenomenon and the authorities took action against the artist.
In June 2026, an Iranian court sentenced Ahmadi to 74 lashes and a ban on artistic activities and leaving the country for two years for that performance. The case was presented by human rights organizations as a new example of the restrictions faced by women artists in the country.
The difference between the two cases is significant: while Ahmadi publicly defied the restrictions through a unveiled performance broadcast on the internet, Seyfizadeh’s case is linked to a face-to-face performance before an audience in which there were men.
Music as a space of protest
The persecution of Seyfizadeh also coincides with the role that some musicians have played in the protests that began after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. The young woman died after being detained by the authorities for issues related to the use of the veil. Her death sparked protests by the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, which spread across the country.
Seyfizadeh supported those mobilizations and spread songs on social networks in which she appeared with her hair uncovered. Her artistic activity was thus also linked to an expression of opposition to the norms imposed on women.
The tightening of pressure on artists has not been limited to singers. Rapper Toomaj Salehi, for example, was sentenced to death for his activity linked to the protests, although that sentence was later withdrawn and the musician was released.
A conflict that continues between the authorities and the artists
The case of Hiva Seyfizadeh reflects a tension that remains open in Iran: that between the restrictions imposed by the authorities on artistic expression and the attempts of musicians and creators to expand the limits of what they can do publicly.
The singer’s arrest in 2025 had already sparked international attention. A report on the situation of music in Iran published in 2026 lists her arrest as part of broader pressure on female singers, noting that she was detained while performing a song at a concert in Tehran.
Now, with a four-year prison sentence and a pending appeal, her case once again places a woman artist at the center of the debate about cultural freedoms in the Islamic Republic.
Music, in this context, is once again much more than music: for some Iranian artists, singing in public has become a way to claim a space that laws and social norms still deny them.
