A couple was jailed for 21 years for a “sinful” dance in Iran. They are provoking, the court said

A couple was jailed for 21 years for a “sinful” dance in Iran. They are provoking, the court said
A couple was jailed for 21 years for a “sinful” dance in Iran. They are provoking, the court said
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Astijaz Haghigh and her boyfriend Amir Mohammad Ahmadi were arrested last November after posting a video on Instagram of them dancing near the futuristic Freedom Tower. Almost two million people follow their accounts, according to the British station BBC.

The young woman was not wearing a headscarf, which is against Iran’s strict dress code for women. The website of the British newspaper The Guardian writes that women in Iran are not allowed to dance in public, and certainly not with a man.

Iranian bloggers and partners Astiaj Haghighi (21) and Amir-Mohammad Ahmadi (22) have been sentenced to 10.5 years in jail, each, and banned from leaving Iran or using social media for two years because of publishing a video of their dance at Tehran’s Azadi (Liberty) Square. https://t.co/pgSVZRe3p9

January 30, 2023 at 4:52 pm, Post Archived: January 31, 2023 at 9:12 pm

The Revolutionary Court in Tehran has jailed a man and a woman for 10-and-a-half years, banned them from using the Internet and from leaving Iran, the United States-based Human Rights Activists Agency (HRANA) said.

The court found them guilty of “inciting corruption and public prostitution” and “assembling with the intention of disturbing national security”. Sources close to the young couple’s families told HRANA that neither Haghigh nor Ahmadi could be visited by lawyers during the trial.

Iranian authorities have been cracking down on any form of protest since Mahsa Aminí’s death last September. A young woman has died after being detained by morality police for allegedly not covering her hair enough.

According to the UN, at least 14,000 people have been arrested since then, including celebrities, journalists, lawyers and ordinary people who took to the streets to protest against the regime, but also because of poverty, unemployment, corruption and injustice. At least four participants in the protests were executed.

The video of Haghigh and Ahmadi, in which a man picks up his girlfriend at one point and waves her long hair, is seen by many as a symbol of the freedoms that the followers of this protest movement are calling for.

The article is in Czech

Tags: couple jailed years sinful dance Iran provoking court

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