I like to choose stories that might be little known to the general public - but really should be. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the singer Pharrell, and his recent hit "Happy". It really has swept the world as of late, and made it to Iran -- and a group of Iranian teenagers made a video lip syncing and dancing to the song. I'm not sure if the video was made to be tongue in cheek, or if it was truly meant as a tribute to dispel misconceptions of the Iranian people. Regardless, the result was this video. After this video went viral on YouTube and Social Media, the video participants were all arrested and taken into custody. A quote from Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia explained the arrests saying that the vulgar video, upon its release into cyberspac, "hurt public chastity" -- despite its generally 'PG' nature (and the fact that all three women were wearing wigs to hide their natural hair). This arrest caught the attention of Pharrell Williams, and he tweeted the below message:
While the arrests were not surprising to those who are well aware of the nature of the Iranian social rules, the political discord that has arisen from the incident has been quite shocking. Since the arrests, a broadcast was made where several Iranians made admissions that they were not made aware that the video would be broadcast, and had been led to believe that the 'creative endeavor' had been sanctioned by the government. It is not clear, however, that those making the admissions were the actual participants, or whether their admissions were coerced. As of May 21st, all of the video participants, sans the director, have been released. It has been largely speculated this is a result of the Iranian President, Rouhani - the this fact makes it even more apparent that major changes are coming to Iran (we hope).
Iranian Political Balance
The Iranian Political System is unlike the U.S. in that it has a secular president, with a religious leader (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini) that is in charge of the judiciary and the police (and now you can begin to see why many Iranians thought they were supporting a just cause during the 1979 revolution -- this system was supposed to prevent religious zealot leadership...sigh.) In decades since the revolution, the practical implementation of this system as resulted in a regime that is governed by Sharia law, and a society that is heavily monitored and controlled by Shiite Muslim leadership. The new president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, has come out in support of the 6 arrested youth tweeting (ironically) that he believed cyberspace to be an "opportunity". Since he has taken office, Rouhani has supported the opening of Iran, and appears to be more progressive. At a recent IT conference, he was quoted as saying, "The right of citizens to have access to international networks of information is something we formally recognize. Why are we so nervous? Why don’t we trust our youth?”This statement, and others seem to indicate that President Rouhani is unafraid of cyberspace and the inevitable changes that it might bring. Iran's stability is critical to the region, and one can only hope that perhaps in time President Rouhani's leadership can somehow lead to improved relations with Iran.
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/20/iranians-arrested-dancing-happy-pharrell_n_5360711.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/05/21/young-iranians-arrested-for-being-happy-in-a-video/
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