Two young women have been arrested for posting a video of themselves dancing on an Iranian war memorial.
The viral Instagram post features the two girls, who appear to be teenagers, purportedly dancing at the Monument to the Unknown Martyrs of the Sacred Defence war memorial in Tehran.
The monument was built by Italian architect Marcello D’Olivo and honours those killed in the Iran-Iraq War that raged between 1980 and 1982.
Iranian authorities have said the girls’ outfits were ‘inappropriate’ and both girls have had their Instagram accounts blocked, according to Iran International.
Dancing in public has been forbidden since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 when the secular monarchy in Iran was overthrown and replaced by the theocratic rule of the cleric Ayatollah Khomeini, who died in 1989.
He was succeeded after his death in 1989 by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has served as Supreme Leader of Iran for 35 years since.
It is not yet clear what the two girls’ punishment will be, but according to Article 637 of the Iranian Penal Code, dancing in public whether by women or men is considered a ‘crime against public modesty’ and can be sentenced to flogging – specified by law as 99 lashes.
