comment: >
  
  WTF. Jail the people who jailed them!
context: The Guardian is authwalled. To summarize:
  An engaged couple, who were popular on Instagram, posted a video of themselves dancing together in public, and the woman did not have a head covering. Dancing in public is forbidden. A woman dancing with a man in public is especially forbidden. The woman not covering her head in public is forbidden. Oh, and they did this dance in front of a national landmark which is a symbol of the regime and whose designer lives in exile because his religion is forbidden. The name of the landmark? The Freedom (Azadi) Tower, of course.
  The couple was convicted without access to lawyers and bail was denied. The charges were “encouraging corruption and public prostitution” and “gathering with the intention of disrupting national security”.
  The woman was sent to Iran's squalid, overcrowded prison for women. >
  
  
  The charges were “encouraging corruption and public prostitution” and “gathering with the intention of disrupting national security”.
  
  Were they dancing the Lambada? Spicy Tango piece? Rhumba? Were they undressing while dancing? Using porn language while dancing? Where they calling for bypassers to protest against the regime while dancing? ...
  I'd like to understand how an innocent dance can be turned into a jail sentence. And most importantly - why?! Shouldn't the government spend their limited resources on something that actually matters? Like... battling corruption, poverty, injustice... Yeah... Nevermind...
  My condolences to the couple. 
  Cheers to hoping the nation will manage to overthrow the sociopathic government and its croonies one day. >
  
  I lived under a dictatorship, there is never a logical reason behind any of their actions. It is all about keeping power and "saving" face: If Iranian become socially liberated, they might ask for separation of state and religion, they don't want that and they are fighting tooth and nail for it. >
  
  "Saving face" and looking as ruthless and despicable as one can get the whole time they're doing it. I can't wait for the day that repressive and backward mafia government is tossed into the dustbin of history. >
  
  That's the least offensive, middle school type dancing, too! >
  
  10 Years in prison for expressing love and joy. It's amazing how primitive those religious zealots can be.
  I don't want to, but I can't help hating the scumbags in power in Iran. >
  
  There's got to be times if you're running a theocracy when you must think, "What the fuck are we doing?" >
  
  I'll go out on a limb and say they probably don't have a second thought about any of the crazy shit they do. >
  
  No, they do. They think "this is awesome!" 
  Look at DeSantis. He's an intelligent man. He's charging teachers with felonies for teaching students that gay people exist because he likes it. Running a dictatorial regime is fun for him. >
  
  You mean the guy who oversaw torture at Gitmo enjoys hurting people? Whoddathunkit? >
  
  Crap like this is why the world needs to stop treating religion as some thing you can’t criticize. Fuck every part of this. These people are losing an entire decade of their lives, simply for having fun, because some religious piece of shit says so. >
  
  And considering the conditions in those prisons, likely much more than just a decade. Its scarring for life, and thats not considering the physical risks. >
  
  Tehran: sounds like a great place to not live. >
  
  If you're interested in not living, the Iranian government can help you with that! >
  
  
  Haghighi was not wearing a headscarf, in defiance of Iran’s strict rules. Women are also not allowed to dance in public, let alone with a man.
  
  I was wondering how what they did was illegal because I forgot briefly that Iran is a backwoods country that would put some countries in the medieval times blush >
  
  Isn't religion awesome? >
  
  One day Footloose will make it to Iran >
  
  🎶Everybody cut footloose🎶 >
  
  Straight to jail. >
  
  These cultures hate women. >
  
  These cultures just hate in general. But yeah, women have it especially bleak under these neanderthals. >
  
  Yes and we have a political party who hates women, minorities, the LGBTQ community and our climate as well as working people. >
  
  Ridiculous. 10 years for daring to be joyous. What a way to run a country. >
  
  There is no god here.. religion is a cancer used by powerful men to manipulate the masses. >
  
  Men dance only with men. Women dance only with women. Yet, you don't hear about gay pride parades in the Arab world. >
  
  That because the whole portion of that area of the earth is mainly inhabited by the most hypocritical religious group in modern times. Did you expect a bunch of logic, reasoning, tolerance and understanding ? >
  
  I mean, they are lucky. Surprised they weren’t tortured and executed. >
  
  Why do people keep saying, that we have to respect their culture ? >
  
  There is a line. It’s different with every person and every culture.
  Remember the outrage of women having their clits removed in some African nations? That makes even the most culturally open minded person fill with rage. 
  You should try not to judge a culture by your own myopic viewpoint. However judging the Iranian theocracy against other middle eastern countries or by its own nation in the 70s it is a culture of oppression and fear.
  It should be mocked and ridiculed mercilessly. >
  
  Ironic. Iran forces ultra radical, orthodox islam on the citizens for basically one sole reason - to increase the birth rate, since Iran is 60% ethnic Persians and 40% Kurds, Azeris and Arabs who hate the Persians, reproduce at a faster rate and will start a civil war the minute they think they have a chance of winning. And yet Persians in Iran have one of the lowest fertility rates in the entire world. Iran is doomed to dissolve as a state within our lifetime because of this.
  Meanwhile, North Korea which has been exclusively atheist for generations, has a birthrate that is perfectly fine. >
  
  Fuck you Iran, sick of your shit >
  
  Think about Iran. The people of Iran. Educated, exposed to most forms of modernism. Yet ruled by thuggish theologians. It’s nearly an untenable equation. The only way out of it will snuff so many bright lights. I feel terrible for them. I wish that it could change. The world would feel better. >
  
  Thank you. Authoritarian theocratic government is the problem here, let’s not confuse the issue lest we let it happen at home. I don’t like Islam or any organized religion but most religious people are relatively decent people, and some suck ass, like any other random group of people. The issue is when governments use religion as an excuse to amass and wield power with the threat of force. If that separation between church and state fades (or never existed in the first place) you get a grotesque dystopia. No matter which religion it happens to be. >
  
  They are seriously taking on tiktok. >
  
  Damn, all over some pieces of paper or some sky fairy ? >
  
  Pissing off already pissed off citizens is a bold strategy, Cotton. >
  
  More of the greatness of Islam on display!! >
  
  I’d go to jail too. I’m a lousy dancer.