EyeOfTheTiger
05-22-2014, 10:36 AM
UPDATE: May 21, 2014, 1:45 p.m. ET: At least five in the group of six Iranians arrested on Monday have apparently been released.
Iranian authorities arrested on Monday at least six people who starred in a viral YouTube video that shows them dancing to Pharrell Williams' "Happy," according to multiple reports.
In the video, three men and three women without hijabs are seen dancing to the hit song in an apartment and on a Tehran building rooftop. It went viral in the past few weeks, attracting nearly 200,000 views on YouTube, according to a Facebook post published by the video's art director, Reihane Taravati. No official explanation has been given for the arrests yet, though some believe the content runs afoul of Iranian law.
Negar Mortazavi, an Iranian freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C., told Mashable that she wasn't surprised the six people were arrested. When Mortazavi first saw the video, she thought it was dangerous to upload it online, considering its content. "Not wearing hijabs and dancing, boys and girls together — that's three big red flags," she said.
SEE ALSO: Inside the Push to Get All 32 World Cup Teams on Twitter
Iranian state television broadcast a video of the six people in custody on Tuesday, only showing them from behind; it also quotes a police officer who says that they "should try to avoid ... this kind of problems," according to the subtitles of a shortened version of the broadcast uploaded to YouTube.
full article - http://mashable.com/2014/05/20/iran-arrests-viral-happy-video/
the video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg5qdIxVcz8
Iranian authorities arrested on Monday at least six people who starred in a viral YouTube video that shows them dancing to Pharrell Williams' "Happy," according to multiple reports.
In the video, three men and three women without hijabs are seen dancing to the hit song in an apartment and on a Tehran building rooftop. It went viral in the past few weeks, attracting nearly 200,000 views on YouTube, according to a Facebook post published by the video's art director, Reihane Taravati. No official explanation has been given for the arrests yet, though some believe the content runs afoul of Iranian law.
Negar Mortazavi, an Iranian freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C., told Mashable that she wasn't surprised the six people were arrested. When Mortazavi first saw the video, she thought it was dangerous to upload it online, considering its content. "Not wearing hijabs and dancing, boys and girls together — that's three big red flags," she said.
SEE ALSO: Inside the Push to Get All 32 World Cup Teams on Twitter
Iranian state television broadcast a video of the six people in custody on Tuesday, only showing them from behind; it also quotes a police officer who says that they "should try to avoid ... this kind of problems," according to the subtitles of a shortened version of the broadcast uploaded to YouTube.
full article - http://mashable.com/2014/05/20/iran-arrests-viral-happy-video/
the video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg5qdIxVcz8