TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian authorities have arrested dozens of people in fresh crackdowns on models and associated colleagues posting "immoral images" online.

The official IRNA news agency reported Monday that officials in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, some 1250 kilometres, or 630 miles, south of the capital Tehran, arrested eight women and 36 other people in the photography, beauty salons and wedding businesses who used Instagram to share what they considered indecent images and clips.

Police said they were "damaging public virtue through the organized spreading of anti-cultural" activities.

Iran conducts regular similar crackdowns to combat western cultural influence which draws the ire of the Islamic Republic's hard-liners. </s> TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian authorities have arrested dozens of people in fresh crackdowns on models and associated colleagues posting “immoral images” online.

The official IRNA news agency reported Monday that officials in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, some 1250 kilometers, or 630 miles, south of the capital Tehran, arrested eight women and 36 other people in the photography, beauty salons and wedding businesses who used Instagram to share what they considered indecent images and clips.

Her name is Maeade Mahi. Recently she got arrested just because of uploading her dancing videos on her Instagram. If you are a woman in Iran and you dance or sing or show your hair then you are a criminal. If you want to enjoy your true self, you have to brake the laws every day. pic.twitter.com/0eIq5ld5x6

Police said they were “damaging public virtue through the organized spreading of anti-cultural” activities.

Iran conducts regular similar crackdowns to combat western cultural influence, which draws the ire of the Islamic Republic’s hard-liners. </s> TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has detained a teenage girl who posted dance videos on Instagram and attracted tens of thousands of followers.

State TV broadcast a video on Friday in which Maedeh Hojabri, 18-year-old gymnast, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that was not her intention, and that she was only trying to gain more followers. It was unclear whether her statement was made under duress.

Shabooneh, a local news website, said Hojabri and three other individuals were detained on similar charges in recent weeks before being released on bail.

She had posted around 300 videos on her account, many of which showed her dancing in both Iranian and Western styles. She also appeared in videos without wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf. Her performances had thousands of followers on various accounts with her name on them, ranging from 12,000 to 66,000 followers. None of the accounts were verified.

Iranian police have said they plan to shut down similar accounts on Instagram, and the judiciary is considering blocking access to the site.

Iran has already blocked access to many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Telegram messaging app. Millions of Iranians continue to use the sites through proxies and VPNs.

Iran’s judiciary and security forces are dominated by hard-liners who launch periodic crackdowns on behaviour deemed un-Islamic. The latest arrests came amid a series of protests against the government’s handling of the economy.

In 2014 authorities sentenced six young men and women to suspended prison terms after they appeared in a video dancing to Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy.” </s> TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has detained a teenage girl who posted dance videos on Instagram and attracted tens of thousands of followers.

State TV broadcast a video on Friday in which Maedeh Hojabri, 18-year-old gymnast, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that was not her intention, and that she was only trying to gain more followers. It was unclear whether her statement was made under duress.

Shabooneh, a local news website, said Hojabri and three other individuals were detained on similar charges in recent weeks before being released on bail.

She had posted around 300 videos on her account, many of which showed her dancing in both Iranian and Western styles. She also appeared in videos without wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf. Her performances had thousands of followers on various accounts with her name on them, ranging from 12,000 to 66,000 followers. None of the accounts were verified.

Iranian police have said they plan to shut down similar accounts on Instagram, and the judiciary is considering blocking access to the site.

Iran has already blocked access to many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Telegram messaging app. Millions of Iranians continue to use the sites through proxies and VPNs.

Iran's judiciary and security forces are dominated by hard-liners who launch periodic crackdowns on behavior deemed un-Islamic. The latest arrests came amid a series of protests against the government's handling of the economy.

In 2014 authorities sentenced six young men and women to suspended prison terms after they appeared in a video dancing to Pharrell Williams' song "Happy." </s> ANKARA: Iranians on social media mocked clerical 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.

"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.

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.

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, but she is likely to be accused of running afoul of Islamic codes of behavior that call for modesty in attire and behavior.

"Art is the language of the soul, highest of the hopes, not a crime, said Twitter user @samzglam. Sharing her own dancing clip, @Marun_1 said :"usually I don't share pictures and videos but today is an important day."

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.

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 holy Shi'ite 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. </s> Iran has detained a teenage girl who posted dance videos on Instagram and attracted tens of thousands of followers.

State TV broadcast a video on Friday in which Maedeh Hojabri, 18-year-old gymnast, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that was not her intention, and that she was only trying to gain more followers. It was unclear whether her statement was made under duress.

Shabooneh, a local news website, said Hojabri and three other individuals were detained on similar charges in recent weeks before being released on bail.

She had posted around 300 videos on her account, many of which showed her dancing in both Iranian and Western styles. She also appeared in videos without wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf. Her performances had thousands of followers on various accounts with her name on them, ranging from 12,000 to 66,000 followers. None of the accounts were verified.

Iranian police have said they plan to shut down similar accounts on Instagram, and the judiciary is considering blocking access to the site.

Iran has already blocked access to many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Telegram messaging app. Millions of Iranians continue to use the sites through proxies and VPNs.

Iran's judiciary and security forces are dominated by hard-liners who launch periodic crackdowns on behavior deemed un-Islamic. The latest arrests came amid a series of protests against the government's handling of the economy. </s> Iran has detained a teenager who posted dance videos on Instagram and attracted tens of thousands of followers.

State TV broadcast a video on Friday in which Maedeh Hojabri, 18, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that was not her intention. It was unclear whether her statement was made under duress.

She had posted around 300 videos on her account, many of which showed her dancing. She also appeared in videos without wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf. She had some 43,000 followers.

Iranian police have said they plan to shut down similar accounts on Instagram, and the judiciary is considering blocking access to the site. Iran already blocks , and other social media, though many Iranians access them through proxies and VPNs. </s> Authorities in Iran arrested four girls and women last week for posting videos of themselves dancing on Instagram. Only one of the girls, 17-year-old gymnast Maedeh Hojabri, has been identified. State TV in Iran aired her “confession” on Friday.



Instagram is one of the few Western social media sites not heavily blocked in Iran, and Hojabri posted about 300 photos and videos before her account was temporarily shut down. Her account appears to be back up as of this morning. Hojabri posted a new video just hours ago addressing her critics.

Hojabri, who reportedly has often spoken about gymnastics and parkour in her videos, was not wearing a hijab in the videos that got her into trouble, which is required by law for women in the authoritarian country.

As The Guardian reports, not much is known about Hojabri, but she’s become the face of a resistance movement against modesty laws for women in the Islamic country. A hashtag of her name, مائده_هژیری, has emerged. Another, which roughly translates to #dancing_isn’t_a_crime, has also become popular. Logically, most people reportedly suspect her “confession” on Friday was made under pressure from Iranian authorities.

“It wasn’t for attracting attention,” one of the arrested women said through tears in a broadcast on Friday, according to The Guardian. “I had some followers and these videos were for them. I did not have any intention to encourage others doing the same… I didn’t work with a team, I received no training. I only do gymnastics.”

Some of the videos of Hojabri are still available online on both Instagram and Twitter and show her doing nothing that would be considered scandalous to even conservative American audiences.

Women in Iran have posted protest videos of themselves dancing on Instagram, and other protests against the country’s hijab laws have erupted in recent months. The hijab has been mandatory in Iran ever since the revolution in 1979.

As the BBC notes, six Iranian girls were given sentences of a year in prison and 91 lashes after they were convicted in 2014 of positing videos of themselves dancing to the Pharrell Williams song “Happy.”

It’s not clear what sentence Hojabri might face for her dancing videos but she has been reportedly released on bail along with the other three women. According to the Associated Press, Iranian authorities are considering blocking access to Instagram, but no final decision has been made. People in Iran typically get around government blocks of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube by using VPNs.

[Associated Press and BBC and The Guardian]

Correction: This article originally stated that the hashtag, مائده_هژیری, translated to “dancing is not a crime.” It is, in fact, her name. Gizmodo regrets the error. </s> Iran has detained a teenager who posted dance videos on her Instagram page, which has more than 40,000 followers.

State TV broadcast a video recently in which Maedeh Hojabri, who is believed to be 18 or 19, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that she wasn’t encouraging others to follow her example. Her face was blurred in the video.

Several other individuals detained for similar charges appeared in the video.

Iranian state TV has a record of airing confessions that rights activists say have been made under duress.

Hojabri had posted dozens of photos and videos on her Instagram account where she is seen dancing to Western pop and rap music. In the posts she appears without the obligatory Islamic dress code that requires women to cover their hair and body in public.

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Iranian police arrest 46 people in fresh crackdowns on models and associated colleagues posting "immoral images" on Instagram.