Popular Iranian band cancels national tour, citing Islamist ban on its female musician performing on stage

Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Persian article.

Popular Iranian fusion music band Pallett says it has cancelled a national tour because authorities in the Islamic republic barred its female musician from performing on stage.

In a Tuesday statement posted on Instagram, Pallett said it recently decided to go back on tour across Iran after a hiatus of many years but scrapped the plan after “we were told in some cities that the female musician is not allowed to go on stage.”

The statement did not specify the cities involved or the Iranian regime entity that blocked its female performer, flutist Shaghayegh Sadeghian, from appearing on stage with the rest of the 7-member group.

“For years, our hearts have hoped to see and hear the art of our (fellow) vocalists, and now after all these years of efforts and protests by male and female musicians, we are witnessing a return to the point where female musicians are not even allowed to perform. We, the Pallett band, are 7 people ... and we appear on stage when all 7 people can perform the same way,” the band wrote.

Iranian state media reported the band’s statement about canceling its national tour due to Sadeghian being banned from performing in several regions. But there was no immediate public comment from Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the governmental body responsible for issuing and revoking concert permits.

Women in Iran face official restrictions on performing music and often are denied permission to perform on stage and penalized for doing so. While Iran’s Islamist Penal Code does not explicitly ban women from singing, bans are enforced under the pretext of preventing "public indecency."

One recent case involves female singer Parastoo Ahmadi, who sang without a headscarf alongside several male musicians at a historic fortress or caravanserai near the holy city of Qom in December 2024. The performance was livestreamed on YouTube and went viral, but led to her and her fellow artists being briefly detained by police and later prosecuted.

A criminal court in Qom sentenced Ahmadi to 74 lashes, a two-year ban on artistic activities, and a two-year travel ban in June. The province's appellate court subsequently upheld the verdict.

The charges in the Ahmadi case included the production and dissemination of content contrary to public decency online.

In another case, singer Alireza Ghorbani’s March 2024 concert in the central city of Isfahan was cancelled hours before it was scheduled to begin. Isfahan’s Headquarters for Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil had insisted the concert proceed without female musicians, despite a permit being issued by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

In December 2015, the Tehran Symphony Orchestra withdrew from performing at the closing ceremony of an international sporting event after officials demanded the exclusion of female musicians.

Pallett also previously experienced a concert cancellation due to Islamist restrictions. In September 2016, Pallett said authorities abruptly canceled a scheduled concert at the historic Bisotun site in the western province of Kermanshah Province, citing a need to use the site instead for a memorial service for Islamists killed while fighting for Iran-backed armed groups in Syria.