Ankara: Iranians on social media mocked country rulers on Monday after the hardline judiciary arrested a teenage girl for posting on Instagram videos of herself dancing in her room.
Critics of the arrest of gymnast Maedeh Hojabri, 18, used the hashtag #DancingIsNotACrime and Iranian women posted videos of themselves dancing in public.
میرقصم تا ببیند و بدانند با گرفتن نوجوانها و مائده ها نمیتوانند شادی و امید را از ما بگیرند و ما امید به دیدن ایرانی آزاد،شاد و با آینده روشن داریم.#مائده_هژبری #برقص_تا_برقصیم #westandtogether#westandwithpahlavi
— داش مَموشی (@dashmamush2014) July 8, 2018
ریتوییت لطفا تا همه ببینند🙏 pic.twitter.com/oGsWPSETGL
"You will be laughed at if you tell people anywhere in the world that 17 and 18-year-old girls are arrested for their dance, happiness and beauty on charges of spreading indecency, while child rapists and others are free," wrote Iranian blogger and political dissident Hossein Ronaghi Maleki.
Iranian state TV aired a video in which she apologized for "breaking moral norms" but said any breach was not her intention. Some Iranian news websites reported three other people had been arrested on similar charges in the past weeks.
The reports said they were released on bail.
"I had no bad intentions ... I did not want to encourage others to do the same ... I did not work with a network," a crying Hojabri told TV on Friday.
#DancingIsNotACrime,
— Let #MaedehHojabri dance (@talentosprecato) July 10, 2018
"Iranian state TV makes these young girls cry on an interview after they got arrested for uploading videos of their dancing performances on Instagram.#MaedehHojabri #FreeIran#maedeh_hojabri pic.twitter.com/16LtOhTquR
Before her account was blocked by Iranian authorities, Hojabri had posted around 300 videos on her Instagram account in which she appeared without wearing the compulsory Islamic headscarf.
#DanceTheNightAway, This is #Iran too women's are dancing to show solidarity with #MaedehHojabri#DancingIsNotACrime pic.twitter.com/dZcaJ2Q4vA
— Ashraf Sherjan (@ASJBaloch) July 9, 2018
Under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, women are required to wear headscarves and modest clothing in public and are banned from dancing in public.
The potential charges against Hojabri were not specified
Access to many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Telegram messaging app are blocked in Iran. Iranian officials said last week the judiciary was considering blocking access to Instagram.
But many Iranians evade the filtering through the use of VPN software, which provides encrypted links directly to private networks abroad, and can allow a computer to behave as if it is based in another country.
Women in #Iran dance in the street, defying the rules and risking arrest by Islamic morality police.#DancingIsNotACrime #FreeMaedeh #FreeIran pic.twitter.com/XtGho1aVd4
— Ashraf Sherjan (@ASJBaloch) July 9, 2018
In April, the judiciary arrested a senior Iranian official after a video posted online that showed young boys and girls dancing in public in the northeastern city of Mashhad for undermining public decency".
In 2014, a group of Pharrell Williams fans arrested for sharing videos of themselves dancing to the song Happy on the rooftops of Tehran and got suspended sentences of imprisonment and lashes.