Cartoon by Kenny Tosh

Iran arrests two young women for public dancing: report

AFP: Two young women were arrested in Tehran after the publication of a video in which they danced to celebrate the coming of the Persian New Year, Iranian media said Saturday.

The clip of the two women hip shaking near Tajrish square, a popular gathering spot for young people in the north of the Iranian capital, went viral on social media.

“The Tehran prosecutor ordered the arrest of two women who broke social norms by dancing in Tajrish,” the Tasnim news agency reported.

The two women were dressed up as Hadji Farouz, a red-clad folklore character whose dancing and songs announce the coming of Nowruz, the Persian New Year that will begin on March 20.

Islamic law as practised in Iran prohibits mixed dancing or women being alone in public.

Numerous videos of women dancing in public places, especially the metro, have gone viral in recent months in Iran, after a mass protest movement shook the country in late 2022 following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini in September of that year.

A 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Amini had been arrested by the morality police in Tehran for not respecting the strict dress code in force in the Islamic republic.