Tehran: An Iranian couple was sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail on Tuesday for dancing in Azadi Square in Iran’s capital Tehran.
The Instagram influencers— 21-year-old Astiyazh Haghigi and her fiancee 22-year-old Amir-Mohammad Ahmadi, shared a video of themselves dancing in the streets.
The 16-second video clip, posted on Instagram, showed the couple dancing romantically without the fiancee wearing a headscarf, which activists considered a symbol of defiance of the regime.
Haghigi did not wear a headscarf in defiance of the strict dress code imposed on women in Iran, where women are not allowed to dance in public or mix with men.
Watch the video below
Haghigi and Ahmadi were reportedly arrested on November 10 in 2022, after their video went viral.
Tehran court sentenced each of them to ten years and six months in prison, a two-year ban from using the internet, and a two-year ban from leaving the country, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Protests in Iran continues
Iran has been witnessing protests since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, on September 16, after she was arrested in Tehran by the morality police on suspicion of not respecting the country’s dress code.
The demonstrations involved people from all walks of life and different sects in Iran after Amini’s killing.
Iranian women are at the fore in the demonstrations, in which many young people participate, to chants of “Woman life freedom” and “Death to the dictator.”
The protests represent one of the country’s boldest challenges since the 1979 revolution.
