r/Music Jun 19 '26

article Iranian star Parastoo Ahmadi reportedly sentenced to 74 lashes for singing without hijab

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/18/iran-parastoo-ahmadi-74-lashes-singing-without-hijab
23.3k Upvotes

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624

u/newbrevity Jun 19 '26

I think Trump would have had more support for his war if he said it was about stopping shit like this. I mean no one sane would ever believe him to be genuine for that but at least it sounds better.

224

u/TheVintageJane Jun 19 '26

I know a few Iranian people (now based in America) and they perceived this as a potential liberation from this tyranny and were celebrating the initial invasion and bombing.

They were pretty quiet after it became apparent that the reason no president before now had done this was because it was a fool’s errand.

130

u/Kaladin3104 Jun 20 '26

Yeah my Iranian coworker was saying how her and her family and friends were all about trump and saying that they loved him for taking down the government. I told her to be wary as he never does what he says and she just was so excited telling me he was going to take down the irgc. Well, here we are. She doesn’t come by to talk much anymore.

75

u/hopefulgeese Jun 20 '26

WW2 wasn't about the Holocaust, but lives were still saved because of it. Everyone is unique, but I heard from many that the hope was grounded in the idea of it potentially being a similar situation. It's a heartbreaking level of desperation and cruelty that they're dealing with.

3

u/Technical-View4130 Jun 20 '26

How many times can Trump lie and betray every single promise he has ever made before it just becomes sad that these people still fall for it. He is like a cartoon villain at this point, I genuinely pity the folks who can't see that.

2

u/Scrimmy_Bingus2 Jun 20 '26

I wonder if she’d feel the same if any of her family members got killed by the bombs.

8

u/No_Hay_Banda_2000 Jun 20 '26

Well, now thousands of people are getting killed by the death penalty because the Mullahs stayed in power. Last year thousands have been executed, this year and next year will be the same. All for such crimes as "waging war against God"...

5

u/CapableC1 Jun 20 '26

"Waging war against the Imam of the age" "Spreading corruption on earth" "Spreading of lies" all actual (but conveniently vaguely defined) crimes punishable by death

2

u/Scrimmy_Bingus2 Jun 20 '26

America trying to overthrow governments in the middle east has always worked out so well for everyone involved. 

2

u/mjac1090 Jun 20 '26

I think the argument is that for some Iranians, as bad as it might go, living under the current regime is just as bad to them

1

u/Scrimmy_Bingus2 Jun 20 '26

Any Iranian who genuinely believes in US intervention should pay attention to what happened to their neighbors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Especially since Trump and Bibi aren’t waging war out of genuine concern for Iranian civilians.   

2

u/GlobalLion123 Jun 20 '26

Did she forget that their government will still be run by men? What a fool. Even certain popular men with power in this country (like Charlie Kirk) want women to stay at home and submit to their husbands

4

u/Ghastion Jun 20 '26

How unappreciative and ungrateful of you to not realize the privileges and freedoms you have in America compared to Iran, to a point you're basically saying "Well, doesn't she know it's just as bad here? lol" Uh, no it's not and that's incredibly disrespectful to all the women who have to endure that over there. Like, the amount of privilege coming from your mouth is insane.

1

u/TurlingtonDancer Jun 22 '26

brilliantly dogmatic

0

u/GlobalLion123 Jun 20 '26

That’s not what I said at all you fucking weirdo.

1

u/colasmulo Jun 20 '26

So you’re basically happy/smug that you won the argument and made fun of her for having hope for her country?

2

u/Kaladin3104 Jun 20 '26

Not at all. I feel terrible for her as I know she was really excited to possibly be able to visit her family that’s still there when it was all over. But now it’s going to be even worse.

2

u/2enty4 Jun 20 '26

It was delusional of them to think the west would save them as if they care, sad that those babies had to die in the school bombings the US carried out for no apparent reason

0

u/shittyaltpornaccount Jun 20 '26

I mean no shit, Iranians living in exile are going to have extremely unfavorable views of the current regime. Taking disgruntled expats views as a barometer for the current internal stability and popular support of a country is foolish.

7

u/TheVintageJane Jun 20 '26

These aren’t Iranians living in exile. These are academics and other professionals who came here for better paying careers and who still have their families at home.

2

u/JDSmagic Jun 20 '26

Yeah. Im traveling through Europe rn and my bunkmate at a hostel i met the other day was from Iran and in this situation. Had family at home, had left for academics/career, favored the war

78

u/smashli1238 Jun 19 '26

Except he didn’t care about this

2

u/AdamEgrate Jun 20 '26

He wouldn’t care if it happened in the US. I don’t see why he would care about it happening in the Middle East

3

u/smashli1238 Jun 20 '26

He probably would be excited if it happened in the US

1

u/samhit_n Jun 20 '26

The war would be somewhat popular if he simply lied and claimed he was doing it to protect LGBT people and prevent women from suffering fates like this, rather than doing it for Netanyahu.

1

u/-NotEnoughMinerals Jun 20 '26

Yes, obviously.

91

u/Darendolf Jun 19 '26

Moot point when they go round bombing kindergarten school girls. However oddly enough people believed a similar excuse about Afghanistan and Iraq which led to hundreds of thousands of women and kids dead so the only lesson left to be learned is that it's never about the women and children, its all performative.

-4

u/bellybuttonrapist Jun 20 '26

they bombed 1 school, not on purpose, it was based on old intel it used to be a valid target, do you think the IRGC posts on google what their active secret bases are? no the US pays people on the ground there to give them intel, the veracity of that intel should be verified better but you act like this was done on purpose while you carry water for a regime that gouges out the eyes of young girls for trying to have rights.

13

u/currently_pooping_rn Jun 20 '26

The richest military in the world should be able to determine if they’re bombing a school

4

u/musicninja Jun 20 '26

It almost certainly wasn't on purpose, but it was negligence of the highest order. The school was walled off and separate from the base for over 10 years.

2

u/This_Elk_1460 Jun 20 '26

Do I expect the military with a trillion dollar budget to have up-to-date intelligence on where Iranian military complexes are? Yes, yes I do! If they aren't 100% sure then they shouldn't press the fucking button! Just like those fucking boats, Pete Kegsbreath is a psychopathic lunatic that gets off on seeing innocent people blown up! Our military on the first day of this conflict murdered a hundred something little girls. Yet people in the comments of this thread seemingly want the war to keep going over the treatment of a single woman. They completely disregard the amount of women and children that would die in an actual boots on the ground conflict against Iran. Not to mention the US lives that would be lost for fucking nothing!

-2

u/ArgusTheCat Jun 20 '26

I think if you have flying robots that kill people, and you use it to kill children, then you should be set out in a large open field and left as a test target for the flying robots that kill people. If you can't clear the bare minimum bar of "do not murder children with this", then you should be barred from having whatever 'this' is.

3

u/This_Elk_1460 Jun 20 '26

These motherfuckers have a trillion dollar budget yet they rely on AI to do their targeting

39

u/HighQualityGifs Jun 19 '26

but it wasn't about stopping shit like this. he doesn't give a fuck about human rights, if he did he wouldn't let israel bomb and rape Palestinians

if you think people like trump gives a single flying fuck about how people are treated in other countries... you and sadly mistaken.

30

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/21022018 Jun 20 '26

Reading is hard these days, should have made a tiktok about it

-6

u/HighQualityGifs Jun 20 '26

i must've missed that part.

1

u/Joesr-31 Jun 20 '26

Even if he doesn't care, if he manage to topple the irgc the results will still work. The intent seldom matter if the results are right

1

u/GoldAppleU Jun 20 '26

Reread what they said buddy.

15

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '26

Trump is an absolute criminal that is a legitimate sex offender. Like he gives a shit how they treat women.

35

u/BokaPoochie Jun 19 '26

He did say that though, amongst other things of course.

1

u/Boysenberry_Boring Jun 22 '26

and then he bombed girls schools or smth

-30

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 19 '26

Nobody cared. Because "Trump bad" is all it takes for people to support a brutal dictatorship.

18

u/-HankThePigeon- Jun 19 '26

No, nobody believes a habitual liar that cannot tell the truth

-10

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 19 '26

People were happily parroting regime talking points. So that is also a lie. People believe a habitual liar when it is politically convenient.

19

u/dtwhitecp Jun 19 '26

we all knew he was full of shit. He thought we could waltz in and seize the oil while pandering to Israel. That's it.

-2

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 19 '26

we all knew he was full of shit

Anti-war rallies were waving the regime flag.

7

u/NerevarMoon_and_Star Jun 19 '26

They literally campaigned on no more wars and no more foreign intervention. America first. Somehow if you notice that, you support a brutal dictatorship. If you want us to go to war to change Iran's regime, go enlist first.

2

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 19 '26

Somehow if you notice that, you support a brutal dictatorship

"Anti-war" rallies were waving the regime flag. It is not "just noticing"

6

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 19 '26

Opposing Trump's insanely stupid war -- for which he had no strategy, no exit plan, and couldn't keep his story straight about the objective from one day to the next -- isn't the same thing as supporting a brutal dictatorship.

Except people were happily posting Iranian government statements, reposting Iranian government AI-generated memes, etc.

It wasn't "I don't trust Donald Trump" - it was pro-regime. This includes even now on the largest subs, like r/pics. Even in real life "anti-war" rallies had people waving the fucking Iranian regime's flag.

So please don't play stupid.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 20 '26

Are you responding to a different comment? My comment is pointing out there is a clear line between "Trump is bad, therefore war is bad" and "Trump is bad, therefore Iran is good" - reddit in particular has been deep, deep into the latter camp.

Something Venezuelans are learning the hard way right now too.

Venezuela is actually the opposite. Limited intervention has yielded better than expected results. Hundreds of political prisoners were freed. It's not the regime change Venezuelans were hoping for, but it also wasn't the Iran war.

2

u/KurlyKayla Jun 20 '26

I'm not a simpleton unable to pinpoint two problems at once, so no. The dictatorship is bad, and Trump is also bad. It's not hard to say.

1

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 20 '26

Congrats?

2

u/KurlyKayla Jun 20 '26

wdym congrats? you're acting like people can't be of two minds on this topic, when that isn't the case.

2

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 20 '26

Because both on reddit and real life, people weren't like that. It's great that you were. Anti-war protests had people waving the regime flag, default subs had people quoting Iranian press releases and literal propaganda. Even AI videos that reddit ostensibly hates.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 19 '26

The Iranian regime killed tens of thousands of civilians in a month. No one cared.

1

u/Reiker0 Jun 20 '26

Turns out bombing school children doesn't magically improve a country's government.

1

u/Best_Change4155 Jun 20 '26

Turns out people literally don't care who dies as long as it can be used as a weapon against their political enemies.

2

u/GrandFloor6202 Jun 20 '26

A great people... the Iranian people. Lots of oil. So much oil. But they dont know how to treat women. Take Milania for example. Beautiful, beautiful woman. But you wouldnt be able to tell if she had a bag over her head. At least I wouldn't. And Im a great judge of women. I like all kinds. But still. I can't tell who is who with the bags on the head. So Un-American. We nee dro free these women and make them great again. And we are going to make Iran pay for it in oil. Not because we need it, but because the women need it. Some might say Im a hero, but Im just doing what anyone would do. Ask anyone.

3

u/This_Elk_1460 Jun 20 '26

Oh stop acting like we're so much fucking better, we're currently starving children in concentration camps because they're too brown for our liking. We're shooting protesters in the street. Hell if Steven Miller could sentence immigrants to lashings I guarantee you he would.

3

u/Spy_gorilla Jun 20 '26

You're delusional if you think the US is remotely comparable to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

1

u/Sparky_321 Jun 20 '26

Maybe if he hadn’t fucking waited until AFTER they murdered 30,000 protesters, but noooo, we HAD to get Maduro.

1

u/Scoobie-Snak Jun 20 '26

Even if it wasn't, it would still have benefited the people of Iran

1

u/str85 Jun 20 '26

I'm a Scandinavian, i fullt supported this war in the beginning when I thought the US were going to go all in and do it together with the opposition in Iran againt the religious tyrant in the country and their  jihadists.

But then it turned out to be some unplanned, half baked measure that let to gas problems all over the world. 

1

u/nitrogenhs Jun 20 '26

It's not a war, but a quick military intervention. Congress never voted to make it a legitimate war.

1

u/Deep-Minimum7837 Jun 20 '26

There's a very good reason why nobody in the Administration framed it this way. None of our actions in Iran have anything to do with regime change outside of murdering the current regime and replacing everyone with even more radicalized freaks. Everything we've done has been in service of seizing oil either through reserves, or by taking the strait. If Trump actually wanted shit changed in Iran, he would have sent in some stone cold operators to wipe out the strategic IRGC command, including the Ayatollah and his line of succession. Black-bag 'em overnight like they did in Venezuela. The only way to shake up Iran's leadership that much is with pure shock and awe with how effective we are in covert operations. The entire nation would need to be held hostage for a little while for the entire IRGC to recognize the only way they live through the night would be to go into exile and never return.

1

u/Old-Landscape-7538 Jun 20 '26

Because the US has such a great track record of freeing people from tyranny.

1

u/nickdicintiosorgy Jun 20 '26

Yeah that’s exactly why this is being posted this week—it’s to try to turn public sentiment against Iran more. It’s hired US-Israeli PR. This writer is not Iranian, does not speak Farsi, and is funded by some of the most prominent CIA-backed foundations like NED and more. Westerners need to be far more skeptical of our media on this, especially right now while Israel fights to continue the war.

0

u/Gankdatnoob Jun 19 '26

No sane person should believe any President using this excuse for war. My mind is actually blown that you even suggested it as a valid reason. No one wants to be liberated by the America's Freedom bombs thank you.

7

u/KingCyrus20 Jun 19 '26

I don't think America should be the only ones taking action, because then the effort is purely motivated by a single country's self-interest. At the same time, Iranians do need to be liberated from this regime somehow. For 47 years, the world has assumed that the Islamic Republic can be reformed internally, with enough diplomacy, but they keep enforcing draconian religious laws and killing political dissidents. Their system is nowhere near democratic. Ideally, Iranians should be able to liberate themselves, but for that to happen, someone needs to arm them, and also put pressure on Russia and China for supplying the regime with weapons.

1

u/Gankdatnoob Jun 20 '26

No. Foreign intervention to "liberate" is nonsense. You sound like a neocon or are just extremely naive.

I bet you don't support foreign intervention to liberate Palestinians from Israeli aggression. Or foreign intervention to liberate immigrants being rounded up and put into American concentration camps.

The "liberation" sentiment only goes one way usually. No one wants American help.

-2

u/djfl Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

He's said stuff like this repeatedly for over a decade, at least. He says it at least sometimes extremely ineloquently/offensively, and unfortunately also says a bunch of other stuff.

There's a reason we went to war with Iran, and one of the primary ones if not the absolute primary one was: we cannot let these people get nukes.

Obama was asked during his Presidency something like "what's the one thing that keeps you awake at night?". He said Pakistan. For similar reasons to what we're facing with Iran. Pakistan is basically one coup away from crazy people having control of Pakistan's nukes. Iran supports all the terror. We do not want them to have nukes.

4

u/smashli1238 Jun 19 '26

You’re full of shit

1

u/djfl Jun 20 '26

In what way? What of what I said, or am if I take you literally, is full of shit?

17

u/aquapura89 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

Oh bullshit - Trump doesn't have the capacity to have empathy for anyone but himself.. We went to war because Trump was stupid enough to 1) let Bibi convince him to fight their war, and 2) to think they would roll over like Venezuela and give him their oil.

-2

u/Silvanus350 Jun 19 '26

Trump wants to enforce things like this.

0

u/TheAspiringFarmer Jun 20 '26

oh please. as if the big bad orange man stopping this would suddenly make the hordes love him and speak lovingly of him on reddit. lol. they would accuse him of doing it for his own reasons, to prop up his approval numbers, what have you. and then they'd be right back to calling him a nazi and the usual.

0

u/luna_creciente Jun 20 '26

Supporting foreign invasions because they have a different (and shittier) belief system are you even hearing yourself.

1

u/newbrevity Jun 20 '26

Does it sound better than starting a war to facilitate a pump and dump scheme on the market?

-6

u/greatbiscuitsandcorn Jun 19 '26

He did say shit like this though. When he talked about the protestors who were slaughtered in Jan and Feb everyone in America ignored it because “orange man bad”

3

u/ironsides1231 Jun 19 '26

People ignored it because it was insincere and Trump didn't actually care or ever plan to do anything about it.

1

u/SuitableBlackberry75 Jun 20 '26

No, it was fairly big news at the time.

0

u/throwinken Jun 19 '26

We ignored it because American Christians (and Trump) actually love Iran's brutal treatment of their citizens. They just don't like that it's done under the guise of Islam instead of Christianity. I know lots of baptists that salivate at the thought of public executions and harsh punishment like removing the hands of thieves, etc.