All I want for 2019 is for much-loved pop stars to stop being inadvertent propagandists for mass-murdering dictatorships. Mariah Carey is the latest musician to perform in Saudi Arabia, following in the ignominious footsteps of Enrique Iglesias and the Black Eyed Peas in December. This is bad on a number of levels. Carey has famously always had a devoted gay fanbase: in Saudi Arabia, homosexuality is punishable by death.

Women are deprived of fundamental rights, and despite Saudi propaganda claims that social progress is being made, scores of women’s rights activists were detained and incarcerated last year. One of them is Loujain Alhathloul, whose brother has denounced Carey’s concert as a “pathetic attempt to show that the country is becoming more tolerant toward women”, appealing for the singer to at least call for her release on stage.

In neighbouring Yemen, Saudi-led forces – with the critical backing of the US and British governments – have plunged the country into the worst humanitarian crisis on Earth, with civilians – including small children on school buses – butchered. Saudi Arabia has exported murderous extremism across the Middle East and beyond. Just months ago, the regime brutally murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. I could go on.

Carey has claimed that her appearance will further the cause of gender desegregation. This is painfully naive. She is being used. The Saudi regime is trying to present a false image of inclusiveness, “modernity” and social progress to the world. Cultural icons with huge fan bases are invaluable to their propaganda efforts.

The Saudi tyrant Mohammed bin Salman already duped numerous gullible western politicians and commentators with claims he was a reformer, even as Khashoggi’s murder took place and women’s rights activists were being locked up. It is in the interests of his regime for the world to see Saudi Arabia as adoring young crowds singing along to much-loved pop icons, rather than as subjugated women, kneeling prisoners on the cusp of execution, or charred children’s corpses in burned-out school buses.

It underscores why cultural boycotts directed at human rights-abusing regimes are so important. Pop stars such as Shakira and Lorde have cancelled gigs in Israel after campaigns led by pro-Palestinian activists. But there are other regimes armed and supported by the west – such as Turkey, whose government is destroying democracy and waging war on the Kurds – which are surely deserving of boycotts, too.

Pop stars such as Mariah Carey may well be fooled by publicists into thinking that, by performing in countries ruled by abhorrent regimes, they will advance progressive causes. They do no such thing: they simply help legitimise tyranny. They became pop stars because of their love of music. They must surely ask themselves if they really ever aspired to become the propaganda devices of one of the worst regimes on Earth.

• Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist