Iranian Couple Reportedly Jailed For 10 Years After Posting A Dance Video

BBC confirmed that the couple’s arrest got here after they posted the video on social media.

CBS Information reported that the Iranian state media outlet Mizan claimed Haghighi and Ahmadi weren’t detained for dancing however for stoking resistance efforts of their Instagram posts by “encouraging individuals to riot in opposition to the nation and subversion.”

Mizan disputed the 10-year punishment and claimed the couple obtained a five-year jail sentence for publishing “a name for protests.”

“It’s clear that anti-revolutionary forces have falsely reported the costs by claiming every have been sentenced to 10 years,” the Islamic Republic judiciary’s Mizan information company mentioned, reported Reuters.

“Astiazh Haghighi and Amir Mohammad Ahmadi had printed a name for a rally on November 4 and referred to as for riots on their Instagram pages,” Mizan’s assertion reads, per CBS Information. “In the course of the riots, they used their web page to promote calls, together with the decision for November 4.”

The couple was individually sentenced by a Tehran court docket to jail for 10 years and 6 months every, for a complete of 21 years mixed, on counts of “promotion of impurity and indecency, meeting and collusion in opposition to nationwide safety, and propaganda in opposition to the regime,” the Washington Submit mentioned Wednesday. The couple have additionally been banned from social media and aren’t allowed to go away the nation for 2 years. Whereas their profiles stay public, there haven’t been posts on Haghighi’s feed since Sept. 28, 2022. Ahmadi’s final submit was firstly of September.

Iranians have been protesting in rising numbers in opposition to the federal government’s theocratic rule, and authorities have been cracking down. A lot of the general public dissent was sparked final yr by the demise of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl who was arrested by Iran’s morality police for the improper carrying of a hijab. Amini died days later of their custody.

Iranian officers have since arrested public figures who’ve spoken out in opposition to the federal government’s response to Amini’s demise. This consists of the arrests of outstanding actor Taraneh Alidoosti and celeb chef Navab Ebrahimi.

Haghighi spoke out in help of Amini in September. In an Instagram submit, she wrote, “Hoping tomorrow will probably be a greater tomorrow. Let’s maintain one another’s fingers and help one another. We’re all Iranians and we have to assist one another.”