A young couple who posted a video of themselves dancing romantically in the streets of Tehran have been sentenced to several years in prison, according to human rights activists and Iranian authorities.
The jailing of Instagram influencers Astiyazh Haghighi, 21, and her fiancé, Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, 22, comes amid the regime’s crackdown in a bid to quell anti-government protests that have swept the country.
The couple, popular figures on social media with a combined following of almost two million, have regularly posted videos together.
In one video posted to their Instagram accounts in November, which has since been deleted but is now being circulated widely on social media, the bloggers can be seen dancing at night near Tehran’s landmark Azadi (Freedom) tower, which marks the western entrance to Iran’s capital.
The couple can be seen twirling and dancing as they embrace with a glittering filter transposed onto the video, in front of the glowing monument.
While dancing is not illegal according to Iran’s penal code, women dancing in public — particularly with men — is. Haghighi appeared in the video without a headscarf, an item of clothing that has become a focal point of the protests.
The couple did not link their video to the unrest that erupted across the Islamic Republic in the wake of the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in hospital after she was detained by the morality police having been accused of breaking the country’s strict dress code.
But news of the couple’s prison sentences was first reported Sunday by an activist group, which said they had been violently arrested on Nov. 1 last year by security forces “after they published a video on social media showing them dancing in a city square.”
Haghighi and Ahmadi were sentenced to ten years and six months each in prison, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, the communications arm of Human Rights Activists in Iran, which describes itself as a “non-political and non-governmental organization comprised of advocates who defend human rights in Iran.”
The two were also banned from using social media, and prohibited from leaving the country for two years, HRANA said, adding that were reportedly denied access to a lawyer during legal proceedings. The last post on both of their Instagram accounts is from Sept. 22.
Iran’s Mizan news agency, which is run by the judiciary, reported Wednesday that Haghighi and Ahmadi were arrested by authorities on Nov. 1 and later sentenced by a judge to to five years in prison each for “colluding and rallying against the country’s security.”
“Their focus was to encourage people to protest and overthrow the regime,” the report said. “They used their platform to advertise for protests, including the call for the October 26th protests. Despite being informed of their disruptive actions by security officials, they persisted and were arrested on November 1st.”
NBC News has been unable to independently verify any details of this case and it is unclear what may be behind the discrepancy between the activist group and Mizan.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
