Iran has sentenced a young influencer couple to 10 years and six months each in prison for dancing in front of one of Tehran’s main tourist attractions – an act seen as a challenge to the clerical regime, which is facing its biggest wave of protests in years old.
Astiyazh Haghighi, 21, and her fiance, Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, 22, were arrested in early November after a video of them doing romantic pirouettes in front of the Azadi Tower in Tehran went viral. The post, which at one point shows Ahmadi lifting Haghighi into the air, was hailed by protesters as an emblem of the freedom they are fighting for — Azadi means “freedom” in Farsi.
The couple were convicted of “encouraging corruption and prostitution in public” and of meeting “with the intent to endanger national security”. In addition to Haghighi not covering her hair with a scarf, as required by the regime, the country’s law still prohibits women from dancing in public.
The human rights group Hrana reported that, in addition to the prison sentence, the two influencers were also banned from using the Internet and from leaving the country. Citing people close to the families of the defendants, the entity claims that they could not choose the lawyers who represented them. Haghighi is reportedly in Qarchak women’s prison outside Tehran, whose conditions are often condemned by activists.
Located in the square of the same name, the Azadi tower is one of the most emblematic monuments in the Iranian capital. Inaugurated under the rule of the last shah, Mohamed Reza Pahlevi, in the early 1970s, and named after him as the Shahyad tower (in memory of the shah), it was renamed after the leader was deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Its architect, Hossein Amanat, lives in exile for following the monotheistic Bahai religion, now banned in the country.
Iran has used every resource at its disposal to punish protesters since the death of a young Kurdish girl in the custody of the moral police sparked a series of protests across the country. Mahsa Amini, 22, had been arrested for allegedly incorrectly wearing the hijab, the Islamic veil, in Tehran. The official version is that she died as a result of previous health problems, but family members and activists say that she was attacked and killed by agents while she was arrested.
UN data indicate that at least 14,000 people have been arrested since the beginning of the acts, in September, from ordinary people to famous artists, journalists and lawyers. At least four demonstrators sentenced to death for their role in the protests have already been executed by Justice, and Amnesty International alleges that the State has systematically denied prisoners the right to an adequate defense.
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