Monitoring Desk
TEHRAN: An Iranian court has sent a young couple behind the bars for 10 years who danced in front of one of the capital Tehran’s landmarks in a video seen as a symbol of defiance against the regime.
Amir Mohammad Ahmadi and his fiancée Astiyazh Haghighi, both in their early 20s, were arrested in November after a viral video showed them dancing romantically near Azadi Tower in the capital.
iran Women not allowed to dance in public
Haghighi was without a headscarf in defiance of the republic’s strict rules for females, while women are also not allowed to dance in public in the country.
A revolutionary court sentenced them to ten years and 6 months in prison and banned them from using the internet or leaving the country.
The couple, already having following in Tehran as popular Instagram bloggers, were convicted of encouraging corruption and public prostitution as well as gathering with the intention of disrupting national security.
Haghighi has been sent to the notorious Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran, whose conditions are often condemned by rights activists.
Authorities in Iran have clamped down severely on all kinds of dissent since the killing of Mehsa Amini by police in September, for allegedly violating headscarf rules.
Her notorious murder erupted country-wide protests, and authorities have arrested at least 14000 protestors ranging from celebrities, lawyers and journalists to common people.
