Iranian authorities have recently arrested four men and two women for teaching Zumba, the BBC reported.
The arrests follow the outlawing of the popular Brazilian exercise dance by the regime in June. In a letter, the head of the Sports for All Federation, Ali Majd Ara, declared that the government would not recognize Zumba as an accepted sport because “rhythmic movements” and “dancing” are illegal.
The six were arrested by the intelligence forces of the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a military organization that answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The detainees were accused of having “attracted boys and girls, taught them Western dances,” the BBC noted, quoting Iranian media.
“The members of a network teaching and filming Western dances have been identified and arrested,” Iranian media quoted Hamid Damghani, a commander of IRGC, as saying.
“They were arrested by the Guards’ intelligence forces while teaching and creating video clips… as they sought to change lifestyles and promote a lack of hijab,” he added.
Saudi journalist Abdulrahman al-Rashed predicted in 2015 that the nuclear deal would embolden Iran’s government to become more repressive because it would “feel more confident, aware that foreign threats will have been neutralized and that no one will be able to confront them.”
Dorsa Derakhshani, an 18-year-old chess grandmaster, was kicked off Iran’s national team in February after she failed to wear the Islamic hair covering known as the hijab at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2017. Her 15-year-old brother, Borna, was also booted from the national team after playing against an Israeli opponent at the same competition.
Iran not only enforces the hijab on its own nationals but also requires that non-Iranian women wear the hijab when competing in the country. Nazí Paikidze-Barnes, the reigning American female chess champion, withdrew from the 2017 Women’s World Chess Championship after it was announced that it will be held in Iran and that participants would be forced to cover their hair.
All women in Iran are required to wear headscarves, a law that is enforced with an iron grip. About 40,000 cars were confiscated in the first half of 2015 because drivers or passengers were not wearing their headscarves properly. Many women were pulled over and beaten on the ground, and arrested afterwards.
In October 2015, two Iranian poets were sentenced to jail and were sentenced to 99 lashes each for shaking hands with members of the opposite sex. The following month, reports surfaced that Iranian actress Sadaf Taherian was forced to flee the country after she posted pictures of herself with her hair uncovered on social media.
In the past few years, a prominent Iranian actress was forced to apologize to avoid a lashing sentence after she kissed a male official at the Cannes Film Festival. Shortly afterwards, a group of young Iranians were arrested and sentenced to jail and lashes for making a video dancing to the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. The sentences were suspended only after Williams and other international observers protested.
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