Young Iranian Couple Given 10-Year Prison Sentence For Dancing In Public

A young Iranian couple was sentenced to prison for dancing in public in what is the latest crackdown on people protesting the regime's brutality against women.

Astiyazh Haghighi, 21, and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmad, 22, were given jail sentences of 10 years and six months for "promoting corruption and prostitution."

The couple was arrested in November after a video showed them dancing in front of the Azadi Tower, one of the main landmarks in Tehran, according to the New York Post. The video reportedly showed Haghighi dancing without a headscarf.

The video was seen as a symbol of defiance in a country where women are expected to cover their hair with a headscarf or hijab and are not allowed to dance in public, let alone with a man.

Iranian authorities have been doling out harsh sentences for any kind of dissent since the death of Mahsa Amini last September. The 22-year-old woman died after she was arrested for not following the country's strict rules about women wearing a headscarf or a hijab, according to the Times of Israel.

Haghighi and Ahmad, both of whom have 930K and 994k followers on social media respectively, did not associate their dance with ongoing protests in Iran. However, a revolutionary court in Tehran handed them their sentence and banned them from using the internet or leaving the country.

The court stated that Haghighi and Ahmad were convicted of "promoting corruption and prostitution, colluding against national security and propaganda against the establishment," as quoted by BBC.

The 10-and-a-half-year sentences were given as a combined sentence for the convictions, and it is unclear how long the sentence for each separate charge against them is.

The family members of the social media influencer couple did not have lawyers during the court proceedings. Attempts to have them released on bail were also rejected, the family added.

Haghighi's family home was also raided before her arrest. She is being held at the Qarchak prison for women, which is often criticized by activists for the conditions prisoners are subjected to.

The United Nations has reportedly said that at least 14,000 people have been arrested for showing solidarity in protests against the regime's brutality against women. Apart from the average citizen, the arrests have also included celebrities, lawyers and journalists.