A particularly harsh sentence. An Iranian court has sentenced a young couple to more than 10 years in prison for dancing in front of one of Tehran’s top landmarks in a video seen as a symbol of defiance to the regime, Iranian human rights activists said on Tuesday.
Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiancé Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their 20s, were arrested in November after a video of them dancing romantically in front of the Azadi Tower in Tehran went viral.
Harsh prison conditions
The young woman did not wear an Islamic headscarf, thus defying the Islamic Republic’s strict rules regarding women, who are also not allowed to dance in public in Iran, let alone with a man.
A revolutionary court of Tehran sentenced them to 10 years and demi prison, even if the interdiction of using the internet and de quitter l’Iran, as indicated by the NGO Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), based on USA.
Popular on Instagram, the couple was found guilty of “fomenting corruption and public prostitution” as well as “meeting with the intent to disturb national security,” the NGO added.
Citing sources close to their families, HRANA said they were denied a lawyer during the court process and attempts to get them released on bail were rejected.
The NGO specifies that Astiyazh Haghighi is in the famous Qarchak women’s prison, whose detention conditions are regularly denounced by human rights activists.
The Iranian authorities have cracked down harshly on all forms of dissent since the death of Mahsa Amini in September, which sparked a wave of anti-regime protests.
At least 14,000 people have been arrested since then, according to the United Nations, including celebrities, journalists, lawyers and ordinary citizens. The video of this couple had been hailed as a symbol of the freedoms claimed by the protest movement.
sensitive place
Known as one of the top attractions in the Iranian capital, the gigantic and futuristic Azadi (“Freedom”) Tower is a sensitive place for power.
It was inaugurated during the reign of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (1941-1979), in the early 1970s, and was then known as the Shahyad (“in memory of the Shah”) tower. Its name was changed when the Islamic Republic was created in 1979.
In a separate case, Armita Abbasi, a 20-year-old Iranian woman, stood trial on Sunday after she was arrested in October during protests in the city of Karaj, near Tehran.
CNN, citing leaks and an unnamed medical source, reported in November that she had been taken to hospital after being raped while in custody. Allegations denied by Iranian authorities.
Her lawyer Shahla Oroji says Armita Abbasi was accused of propaganda against the system and the court refused to release her on bail.
Source: BFM TV
