Iranian protesters in step with girls hunted by police over viral dance video
YOUNG Iranian women are posting a choreographed dance in protest against a police investigation into a viral video filmed to mark International Women’s Day last week.
The video, posted on March 8, shows five Iranian women performing a dance routine to the song Calm Down by Rema and Selena Gomez.
The women danced without headscarves in front of tower blocks in Shahrak Ekbatan, a west Tehran housing development that has been a flashpoint of anti-government protests.
While the Afropop hit is a staple soundtrack for dance trends on the social platform Tiktok, Iranian police investigated the video and cautioned the dancers, according to a popular Twitter account sharing news from the neighbourhood.
“They looked for CCTV footage of Block 13 to identify the girls who were only dancing and were not involved in any political activity. Police were seen checking the footage and questioning the guards,” it said.
Activists have hailed the women in the 41 second video for their courage in defying the Islamic Republic’s ban on public dancing and strict dress codes mandating the wearing of headscarves in public.
Since then women across the country have responded by posting footage of themselves performing the dance.
Maziar Bahari, a journalist and filmmaker, said: “This is an ordinary scene in most cities around the world. But in Iran, it’s an act of defiance.”
“The revolutionary women of Tehran have shown their support for the brave girls of Ekbatan,” wrote the Ekbatan account, sharing a video it said showed a woman dancing outside Tehran’s notorious Evin protest.
“Fear has no place in the hearts of these young women, their only goal is revolution.”
The account, which shares neighbourhood news and anti-government posts, said the girls’ dance instructor, identified as Mrs Mitra, had been questioned and the dancers cautioned over the video.
“Mrs Mitra is a coach who yesterday had a video of her students’ dance go viral,” the account tweeted. “She has been interrogated and told that the post of the girls’ dance should be removed.”
Ekbatan is Tehran’s largest housing development, built during the 1970s as part of a modernisation drive under the Shah. Popular with well-educated, middle class professionals, the area has a strong sense of community, with the population of some 50,000 people referring to themselves as Ekbatanis.
The development has become a hotbed of anti-government protests, with activists in Ekbatan organising online and in the street to share updates on the movement and security force activity.
The latest nationwide protest movement started last September after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was detained for “inappropriate attire” by the regime’s infamous morality police.
After nationwide anger over her death and opposition to public dress codes, the demonstrations began to call for the downfall of the Islamic republic and the sight of women removing their headscarves publicly has become a staple of a movement which has adopted “woman, life, freedom” as its slogan.
Security forces responded with a crackdown in which rights groups say more than 500 people have been killed and thousands arrested. At least four protesters have been executed.
In January, an Iranian couple were reportedly sentenced more than 10 years in prison each for publishing a video of themselves dancing in Tehran’s central Azadi – or Freedom – Square.