After a video of a dance at a landmark tower went viral, a couple was found guilty of “encouraging corruption and public prostitution.”
Who would have thought dancing and having a lack of knowledge of the state’s constitution could put you in jail? The same happened to this young couple who went viral after dancing in Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom).
According to activists, an Iranian court has sentenced a young couple who appeared in a video dancing in front of a prominent landmark in Tehran as a sign of defiance against the regime to more than ten years in prison apiece.
For the crime of dancing, these two young Iranians have been sentenced to 10 years and 6 months in prison.#AstiyazhHaghighi 21 & #AmirMohammadAhmadi,
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 30, 2023
22 danced in the streets in support of #WomanLifeFreedom revolution in Iran.
They don’t deserve such brutality.#MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/Bs9VxqnxFV
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In contravention of Iran’s moral regulations, Haghighi was seen in the video without her headscarf. Thus this may have resulted in their arrest.
In one scene from the video, Ahmadi lifts his fiancée, who has unfastened hair. Additionally, dancing in public is not authorized for women.
The two were given ten years and six months in prison for “promoting corruption and prostitution, colluding against national security, and propaganda against the establishment,” according to Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA). This group has closely followed the country’s protest movement.
However, according to Iran’s Mizan news agency, they were given a five-year prison term for using social media to foment unrest. It’s not apparent what caused the difference between these two reports.
Since then, both of the couple’s Instagram profiles and the initial video of them dancing have been taken down from social media. However, copies of the videos have turned up and are already becoming viral on social media.
The video has been utilized to show the freedoms that the opposition of the Iranian regime is fighting for, even though the pair didn’t specifically relate their dance to the country’s ongoing protest movement.
The couple was identified as Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, 22, and his fiancé, Astiyazh Haghighi, 21, and both are popular Instagram influencers in Iran.
Reactions to Iran Sentences A Young Couple To A Long Prison Term After They Danced In Tehran’s Azadi
This is what actual oppression of women looks like. Think about this next time you cry about us not letting you kill your babies.
This is what actual oppression of women looks like. Think about this next time you cry about us not letting you kill your babies. https://t.co/eBt0Py2RrM
— Leonidas (@LeonidasOneTime) February 1, 2023
Horrible
Horrible https://t.co/9o1dMUH8b9
— Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj (@DeepikaBhardwaj) January 31, 2023
Tell me about the virtues of religion again. I’m waiting
Tell me about the virtues of religion again. I’m waiting https://t.co/v4XqGub6Cf
— Susan Park – 🐻🇰🇷🇦🇺🧡 (@Susan16Park) January 31, 2023