March 16, (THEWILL) – A group of Iranian teen girls have been arrested and pressured into apologising for dancing to the remix of ‘Calm Down’, a song by Nigerian singer, Divine Ikubor, aka Rema and American singer, Selena Gomez.
A tweet from a Twitter account, Shahrak Ekbatan, said the five girls were first brought in and given a warning, then called again and detained for two days before being compelled to make a coerced confession.
Fox News reported that security forces, last week, started looking for the five girls soon after the video, which was filmed near Ekbatan, west of Tehran, gained popularity online, by reviewing CCTV footage at the tower block to identify the girls and questioning the guards.
The girls weren’t wearing headscarves, which are required for women in Iran, as the video was shared on International Women’s Day, Wednesday, March 8, 2023.
This may have been perhaps in honour of the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, who died on September 22, 2022, while in police custody, following her arrest for not wearing her headscarf properly.
There were massive protests as a result of her death. Many Iranian women took to the streets to protest the development with some taking off their headscarves and throwing them into fire.
“No to the headscarf … yes to freedom and equality!” protesters in Tehran chanted in a rally that was echoed by solidarity protests abroad.
Also, women are banned from dancing in public in Iran.
“The video would be considered ordinary in most cities around the world but in Iran, the video is an act of defiance,” Iranian-Canadian journalist, Maziar Bahari, said.
“I wonder if @heisrema knows that his song #CalmDown is the backdrop of an incredibly courageous act of defiance by young Iranian women?” another Canadian journalist, Nahayat Tizhoosh, said.
“It started when five girls danced to his music in @shahrak_ekbatan- risking persecution by a regime that has murdered women for simply protesting,” Tizhoosh added.
Reacting to the news, Rema, via his official Twitter account, said, “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.”
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