Five young Iranian women were allegedly arrested for dancing to Rema, a Nigerian Afrobeat singer and rapper’s song, “Calm Down.”
WITHIN NIGERIA understands that the video of the girls dancing without hair covers had gone viral on Tuesday.
It is illegal in the Islamic Republic for women to dance in public or to not wear the Islamic headscarf.
One of the main demands of the civil unrest that erupted in September following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress code, was the abolition of the mandatory headscarf rule.
According to The Times of Israel, there have been concerns about the young women’s safety after they were arrested and forced to confess by Iranian authorities.
To the song, the ladies were dancing and slightly exposing their stomachs near highrise buildings in Tehran’s Ekbatan residential district.
Activists from the Ekbatan area, it appears, were the first to post the video on Telegram and Twitter. According to The Times of Israel, authorities had been asking residents in the area if they knew the women based on the footage.
The activists claimed on Tuesday that the ladies had been detained and forced to make a video in which they expressed regret.
Following the initial viral footage of the five, another video of four women, their heads fully covered, stepping forward one by one to express regret surfaced on social media.
It was also unclear whether the women had been released.
In solidarity, Rema retweeted the video of the women dancing with their long hair uncovered and commented:
To all the beautiful women who are fighting for a better world, I’m inspired by you, I sing for you and I dream with you.
To all the beautiful women who are fighting for a better world, I’m inspired by you, I sing for you and I dream with you. ✊🏿🤍🇮🇷 https://t.co/sOCQjZnlpB
— REMA (@heisrema) March 14, 2023
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