Iran jails couple for 10 years each for dancing near Azadi Tower

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Iran jails couple for 10 years each for dancing near Azadi Tower

An Iranian court handed jail sentences of more than 10 years each to a young couple who danced in front of one of Tehran's main landmarks in a video seen as a symbol of defiance against the regime, activists said.

Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmadi were arrested in early November after a video showing them dancing romantically in front of the Azadi Tower in Tehran.

Haghighi was not wearing a headscarf, defiance of the Islamic republic's strict rules, while women are not allowed to dance in public in Iran, let alone with a man.

A revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced each to 10 years and six months in prison, as well as imposing bans on using the internet and leaving Iran, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, HRANA.

The couple, who had already had a following in Tehran as popular Instagram bloggers, were convicted of encouraging corruption and public prostitution as well as gathering with the intention of disrupting national security.

Sources close to their families told HRANA that they had been deprived of lawyers during court proceedings and attempts to secure their release on bail had been rejected.

It said Haghighi was now in Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran whose conditions are regularly condemned by activists.

Since the death of Mahsa Amini in September of last year, the Iranian authorities have stepped down severely on all forms of dissent, which has sparked protests that have turned into a movement against the regime.

According to the United Nations, at least 14,000 people have been arrested, from prominent celebrities, journalists and lawyers to ordinary people who took to the streets.

The couple's video had been hailed as a symbol of the freedoms demanded by the protest movement, with Ahmadi lifting his partner in the air as her long hair flowed behind.

One of the main icons of the Iranian capital, the futuristic Azadi Freedom Tower is a place of great sensitivity. It opened in the early 1970s under the rule of the last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, when it was known as the Shahyad In Memory of the Shah Tower.

It was renamed after the shah was ousted in 1979 with the creation of the Islamic republic. Its architect, a member of the Bah faith that is not recognized in today s Iran, now lives in exile.