Five young Iranian women who posted videos of themselves dancing to Rema’s hit song “Calm Down” without head scarves are purportedly in custody.
In the footage, the women can be seen bare-chested and dancing beneath highrises in the Ekbatan neighborhood of Tehran.
During International Women’s Day on March 8, the video became popular on TikTok and other social media platforms last week. Rema tweeted the video along with the caption as well;
“I’m inspired by all the beautiful women who are working for a better world, I sing for you, and I dream with you,” she said.
Activists from the Ekbatan area claimed that authorities had been asking locals if they knew the women when they originally shared the footage on Telegram and Twitter.
The young women were reportedly held and made to record a video in which they professed sorry, according to a recent article from Times of Israel.
Both dancing in public and not donning an Islamic hijab are prohibited for women in the Islamic Republic.
One of the main objectives of the protest movement that began in September after the murder of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been detained for allegedly breaking the dress code, was the elimination of the mandatory headscarf requirement.
It wasn’t immediately known if the women had been freed.
This video of Iranian girls in Tehran’s Ekbatan neighborhood dancing unveiled to the song Calm Down by Rema and Selena Gomez has gone viral.
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) March 9, 2023
Women are banned from dancing in public in Iran. pic.twitter.com/2hSsY4KFEg
Iranian authorities are after these girls to arrest them for the crime of dancing in international women’s day.
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 10, 2023
In the eyes of Islamic republic, these girls are master criminals for showing their hair, happiness and dancing. That is why school girls are being the target of… https://t.co/hZfIVlsJM8 pic.twitter.com/24jc2gsbMe
