New Delhi: A court in Iran has given jail sentences of more than 10 years each to a couple who was dancing in front of one of Tehran’s main landmarks Azadi Tower. A video of them dancing which went viral is being seen as a symbol of defiance against the regime, activists have said, as reported by the news agency AFP.
Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiance, Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their early 20s, were arrested in early November, AFP reported. The arrest came after a video went viral showing them dancing romantically in front of the Azadi Tower. A revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced them to 10 years and six months in prison, imposing bans on using the internet and leaving Iran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.
The couple, who is a popular Instagram blogger, was convicted of “encouraging corruption and public prostitution” as well as “gathering with the intention of disrupting national security”, it said.
According to AFP, Haghighi was not wearing a headscarf, in defiance of Iran’s strict rules. Women in Iran are not permitted to dance in public, let alone with a man. HRANA cited sources close to their families as saying they had been deprived of lawyers during the court proceedings, and attempts to secure their release on bail had been rejected.
It said Haghighi was now in Qarchak prison for women, outside Tehran, whose conditions are regularly condemned by activists. Since Mahsa Amini's death in September, Iranian authorities have come down heavily on all forms of dissent. Amini was arrested for allegedly violating the headscarf rules, which sparked protests that have turned into a movement against the regime.
The couple’s video had been hailed as a symbol of the freedoms demanded by the protest movement, with Ahmadi at one moment lifting his partner in the air as her long hair flowed behind, AFP reported.