Young Iranian Couple Jailed for 10 Years Over Video of Them Dancing in Public

A court in Tehran has sentenced two young Iranians to ten and a half years in prison for posting a video of themselves dancing in the capital’s Azadi Square, one of the sites of anti-government protests. 

Astiyazh Haghighi, 21, and Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, 22, can be seen dancing in the street in the video in the square, which translates as “Freedom Square,” a historic epicentre of protests in Iran, which is also used by pro-government Iranians to commemorate the 1979 Iranian Revolution. 

The video appears to have been posted in October 2022; although the original version seems to have been deleted, the court’s sentencing said it had been posted on a ‘personal page’ and is now being posted by users online again in solidarity with the couple. 

The couple, who are engaged, are both full-time content creators on Instagram, each with nearly a million followers on Instagram. 

According to news outlet Iran Wire, which is run by diaspora journalists outside of the country, Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court charged the couple with "encouraging corruption, assembly and collusion with the intention of disrupting national security and spreading propaganda” against the Islamic Republic on January 29.

They were denied access to a lawyer, and their bail request was also refused.

In addition to the sentence, they have been banned from any “online activities” and from leaving Iran for two years after they have served their prison terms.

Haghighi and Ahmadi were arrested on the 1st of November 2022, and were reportedly beaten by plain clothes police officers. 

The sentences they have been given are longer than the one recently given to Sajjad Heydarnawa, who was given just eight years in jail for decapitating his own wife. 

The authorities have been cracking down on protesters since September, when anti-government demonstrations erupted after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody. Amini had been arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. 

In late September, Haghighi wrote in her last post on Instagram that she was “hoping for a better tomorrow” and that “we are all Iranians and we need to help each other” in Farsi, using the hashtag #mahsaamini. 

Iran has restricted Instagram in the country since September, and has a history of blocking internet access during periods of civil unrest.

Yesterday another social media influencer, Sara Rezaei, who is followed by the couple and who claims to have received a message from Astiyazh Haghighi, wrote on Instagram that Haghighi told her that she had been transferred from Evin Prison to Gharchak Prison days after “pledging not to become a media person” for the authorities. She adds she was not allowed bail because authorities considered her the “breadwinner’ of her family. 

Responding to their sentencing, Rezaei ended her caption with: “Despite the fact that Astiyazh and Amir are engaged, Judge Salavati disrespected Amir, Astiyazh and our family. We trusted the judiciary for about 3 months and kept quiet.”

“But now, seeing the cruel sentence of 14 years and 6 months, we ask for help from all of you.”

Jasmin Ramsey, Deputy Director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, told VICE World News: “This sentence highlights the injustice that runs rampant in the Islamic Revolutionary Court system, where a handful of judges implement orders dictated by the state security establishment, which is obsessed with crushing any form of dissent and basic rights including freedom of expression.

“These young people are representative of the true and future Iran. The state can try to muzzle them and throw them in jail, but that's all temporary; it will never succeed in crushing Iranian young people's spirits and thirst for freedom.”

Tara Seperhi Far, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, described the jail terms as “arbitrary and totally unjust.”

The most recent statistics from the nonprofit Human Rights Activists in Iran, who issue daily numbers, say that 19,602 people have been arrested so far, including 178 children. It says 71 children have been killed during the protests.

The group adds that 4 protesters have been executed, and that over 13,000 jail sentences have been given to protesters in recent months.

This month the US-based NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran said that Iranian authorities have beaten, shot at and threatened the families of detained and killed protesters to force them to remain silent. 

Iran Wire reported that the families of Haghighi and Ahmadi have been pressured to not discuss the arrest.