An Iranian pop singer whose song became an anthem during mass protests more than a year ago has been sentenced to at least three years in prison.
Shervin Hajipour, 26, wrote and published Baraye during nationwide demonstrations triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in September 2022.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had been arrested for allegedly violating the Iran’s strict dress code for women.
On Friday, as the country held parliamentary elections, Hajipour said on Instagram he had been sentenced to three years in prison for “inciting and provoking people to riot to disturb national security”.
He was also handed an eight-month sentence for “propaganda against the regime”.
It was not clear when the verdict was issued and it was not reported elsewhere.
Under Iranian law, jail sentences run concurrently, meaning Hajipour would serve three years behind bars.
Iranian state-run media, focused on Friday’s election, did not note Hajipour’s sentence and Iran’s mission to the UN in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Baraye, or For in English, begins: “For dancing in the streets / for the fear we feel when we kiss.” The lyrics list reasons given online by young Iranians for protesting against Iran’s ruling theocracy after Amini’s death in September 2022, allegedly for not wearing her mandated headscarf to the liking of security forces.
Baraye was played at a White House celebration in March 2023 marking Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
A month earlier, the US first lady, Jill Biden, awarded Hajipour a special Grammy for best song for social change, calling the tune a “powerful and poetic call for freedom and women’s rights”.
Covering the neck and head has been compulsory for women in Iran since 1983, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Amini’s death sparked months-long protests in which hundreds of people, including dozens of security forces, were killed and thousands arrested.
Hajipour was briefly arrested during the protests.
In January, an Iranian court sentenced a pop singer who criticised the headscarf law to one year in prison.
Mehdi Yarrahi’s sentence was changed to home confinement instead of jail time owing to health issues, his lawyer said.
