According to the US media and French news website France24, on November 1, Iranian police reported that they arrested three female Internet celebrities who posted dance videos on social networking sites and prosecuted 3 people for "creating obscene content".
The three are Sarah Afsarian, Sarah Shariadari and Nirufa Motoi, who have thousands of followers online. They were arrested by the police for uploading videos of themselves dancing hip-hop on social media. They are currently being held in Qarchak prison near Tehran.
Iranian state media reported that the three men were indicted for "creating obscene content."
In a 2017 YouTube video, one of the arrestees, Sarah, dressed in clothes and wearing a headscarf, danced and spun happily. None of the images she posted on other platforms had vulgar pornography.
A 19-year-old Iranian dancer shared his story with reporters. The young girl, Ghazaleh, who specializes in Zumba and ballet, once lived in Tabriz, northwestern Iran. A year earlier, she had been threatened with arrest and jail, so she left Iran for Turkey. Now she lives in a small city in Turkey, teaches Zumba and studies film at university.
Iranian women are often arrested for putting their photos online because Iranian officials believe the photos are offensive, and eventually the women are forced to openly admit that their actions are immoral.
In September 2018, when a theater in Tehran staged Shakespeare's Dream on a Midsummer Night, two actors were detained for performing a mixed dance.
In 2014, six young Iranians recorded a video of themselves dancing with a song by Pharrell Williams, "Happy," and were eventually sentenced to 91 floggings for ignoring Sharia rules.