Iran slaps couple with 10-year prison sentences for dancing in public

Iran slaps couple with 10 year prison sentences for dancing in front of landmark in Tehran in latest brutal crackdown on any dissent to regime

• Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmadi were jailed this week 
• Sentencing is latest example of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s ruthless clampdown
• Islamic republic has jailed thousands and sentenced 18 to death amid protests 

An Iranian court has handed jail sentences of over 10 years each to a young couple for dancing in front of one of Tehran’s main landmarks, activists said on Tuesday.

Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their early 20s, had been arrested in early November after a video went viral of them dancing romantically in front of the Azadi Tower in Tehran.

Haghighi did not wear a headscarf in defiance of the Islamic republic’s strict rules for women, while women are also not allowed to dance in public in Iran, let alone with a man.

A revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced them each to 10 years and six months in prison, as well as bans on using the Internet and leaving Iran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.

It is the latest crackdown by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s ruthless Islamic republic on any behaviour that could be construed as dissent amid ongoing countrywide protests against the regime.

Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their early 20s, were arrested late last year after they posted a video of them dancing in front of Tehran’s Azadi Tower

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has launched a ruthless crackdown on all forms of dissent against the regime

READ MORE: ‘Do not play with Muslims’: Iran warns the French they could face the same fate as Salman Rushdie after Charlie Hebdo magazine mocks Ayatollah Khamenei with spoof cartoons 

 

The condemned couple, who already had a 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’ according to HRANA.

The organisation cited sources close to their families as saying they had been deprived of lawyers during the court proceedings while attempts to secure their release on bail have been rejected.

It said Haghighi is now in the notorious Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran, whose conditions are regularly condemned by activists.

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.

One of the main icons of the Iranian capital, the gigantic and futuristic Azadi (Freedom) Tower is a place of huge sensitivity.

It opened under the rule of the last shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the early 1970s when it was known as the Shahyad (In Memory of the Shah) Tower, but was renamed after the shah was ousted in 1979 with the creation of the Islamic republic.

Iranian authorities have clamped down severely on all forms of dissent since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini – a young woman who was arrested for allegedly violating the headscarf rules in September – sparked protests that have turned into a movement against the regime.

Amir Ahmadi catches his fiancee Astiyazh Haghighi as they perform a romantic dance in Tehran which went viral on social media

FILE IMAGE: The Azadi (Freedom) tower is illuminated in the Iranian capital, Tehran

Huge protests have rocked Iran since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September

A file picture shows a demonstrator raising his arms and makes the victory sign during a protest for Mahsa Amini

At least 14,000 people have been arrested since the death of Amini in connection with the protests, according to the United Nations, ranging from prominent celebrities, journalists and lawyers to ordinary people who took to the streets.

The regime has also carried out a string of executions of people found guilty of various crimes amid the protests.

Earlier this month, Iran executed former karate champion Mohammad Mehdi Karami and volunteer children’s coach Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, who allegedly killed a paramilitary volunteer.

The executions came despite pleas for clemency from Karami’s parents and an international human rights campaign which argued the men were subjects of a sham trial.

Amnesty International said the court that convicted Karami, a 22-year-old karate champion, relied on forced confessions, while Hosseini’s lawyer Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani said in a December 18 tweet that Hosseini had been severely tortured and that confessions extracted under torture had no legal basis.

He said Hosseini was beaten with his hands and feet tied up, kicked in the head until he passed out, and subjected to electric shocks on different parts of his body.

 

Four people have been executed thus far in connection with the protests and 18 overall have received a death sentence. 

Iran’s judiciary this month also openly stated it will ‘firmly punish’ women who violate strict dress rules. 

Since the outbreak of the protests, the morality police units charged with enforcing the hijab rules have been less visible and many women have taken to the streets with their heads uncovered.

But as the demonstrations continued, the prosecutor general issued a directive in which ‘police were ordered to firmly punish any hijab violations’, Mehr news agency reported.

‘Courts must sentence the violators, as well as fine them, to additional penalties such as exile, bans on practising certain professions and closing workplaces,’ Mehr quoted the judiciary as saying.

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