After a video of a couple dancing in Tehran’s main square surfaced, they were sentenced to 10.5 years in prison. Additionally, the couple are forbidden for two years from using the internet or travelling outside of Iran. Their case was heard by Judge Abolqasem Salavati, who handed out the punishments.
Astiyazh Haghighi, 21, and Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, 22, can be seen dancing in Azadi Square while Haghighi was without a headscarf in the video that has gone viral on social media. The couple, who are both social media influencers, published the video themselves.
In addition to having separate YouTube accounts with a combined following of more than 500,000, Haghighi and Ahmadi have close to a million Instagram followers each.
Iran prohibits women from dancing in public, much less doing so without a hijab and with a guy. Prior to Haghighi’s arrest, the police also searched her home.
Security agents first searched the couple’s house early on October 30, according to a source who spoke to CNN. They then brought them to be questioned before transferring them to prison.
According to HRANA, Haghighi was initially sent to Ward 209 of the Evin Prison before being moved to the women’s prison at Qarchak, where she is presently being held. It continued that Haghighi and her companion were both refused access to legal counsel.
Each was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison after being accused of “spreading corruption and vice” and “assembly and collusion with the intention of disrupting national security”, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
The Iranian judiciary’s news agency, Mizan, reported that each person had received a five-year prison sentence for “assembly and collusion with the intention of disrupting national security”. The two were charged with inciting crowds to gather and inviting them to riot in an October 26 Instagram post.
Iran has seen widespread protests across the country over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman accused of defying the country’s laws requiring women to wear the hijab. Iran has responded by executing protesters accused of murdering security officers. According to critics, the judgements came from hurried fake trials.
Iranian couple filmed dancing in Tehran were just given a 10-year prison sentence for “promoting corruption, prostitution and propaganda.” In the video that they posted to Instagram, Astiazh Haqiqi and her fiancé Amir Mohammad Ahmadi are dancing by Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Tower. https://t.co/xWdGFatDpd pic.twitter.com/r6iWmRGAL6
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 1, 2023
