Mixedgender party arrests

Iranian police arrested 16 men and women at a mixedgender party in the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday. Such parties are illegal under Iranian law. Drinking alcohol is also illegal and Muslim men and women who are not related cannot mingle or dance together in public. The Tasnim report quotes a local prosecutor, Khalilollah Barzanuni, as saying that the 16 were detained while they were dancing at a party in a villa in Golbahar, a neighborhood in the city of Golmakan.