Maedeh Hojabri, an 18-year-old Instagram star in Iran who has almost 70,000 followers, was detained last week after she shared videos of herself dancing on the social media platform. In many of the videos, she was not wearing a hijab, which women in Iran are required to wear in public.

On Friday, Iranian state TV broadcaster IRIB aired a video in which a crying and shaking Hojabri says she regrets recording and uploading the clips. Some have noted that the confession may have been forced, allegedly a common tactic used by Iranian authorities.

"It wasn't for attracting attention," Hojabri says in Arabic in the video, the Guardian reported Monday.

"I had some followers and these videos were for them. I did not have any intention to encourage others doing the same… I didn't work with a team, I received no training. I only do gymnastics," she added. There is currently no indication as to when Hojabri will be released from detention.

Iranian authorities have also detained several other unidentified women for uploading similar dancing videos on their social media accounts, the Washington Post reported Monday. However, all of the women have reportedly been released on bail as of Monday. In addition, according to Iranian media outlets, authorities are considering shutting down access to Instagram in the country completely.

However, that hasn't stopped Iranian women from taking on social media to share videos of themselves dancing in public with hashtags "#dancetofreedom" and "#dancing_isn't_a_crime."

On July 7, Iranian blogger Hossein Ronaghi shared a video of herself dancing on Twitter with the translated caption, "If you tell people anywhere in the world that 17 and 18-year-old girls are arrested for their dance, happiness on charges of spreading indecency, while child rapists and others are free, they will laugh! Because for them, it's unbelievable!"

Another Twitter user, Masih Alinejad, also posted a recent video of herself dancing in a public park in Tehran in support of Hojabri. Yet another female Twitter user shared a similar video of herself dancing with the translated caption, "I'm dancing so that they see and know that they cannot take our happiness and hope by arresting teenagers and girls like Maedeh."

This is not the first time Iranian authorities have arrested people for this sort of thing.

In 2014, a group of Iranian Pharrell Williams fans filmed themselves dancing to the star's hit song "Happy" in Tehran. The video, which quickly went viral, was strongly disapproved of by Iranian authorities, who swiftly arrested the video participants. The individuals were later released after making confessions on Iranian TV. The video is no longer available for viewing on YouTube.</s>Authorities in Iran arrested four girls and women last week for posting videos of themselves dancing on Instagram. Only one of the girls, 17-year-old gymnast Maedeh Hojabri, has been identified. State TV in Iran aired her “confession” on Friday.



Instagram is one of the few Western social media sites not heavily blocked in Iran, and Hojabri posted about 300 photos and videos before her account was temporarily shut down. Her account appears to be back up as of this morning. Hojabri posted a new video just hours ago addressing her critics.

Hojabri, who reportedly has often spoken about gymnastics and parkour in her videos, was not wearing a hijab in the videos that got her into trouble, which is required by law for women in the authoritarian country.

As The Guardian reports, not much is known about Hojabri, but she’s become the face of a resistance movement against modesty laws for women in the Islamic country. A hashtag of her name, مائده_هژیری, has emerged. Another, which roughly translates to #dancing_isn’t_a_crime, has also become popular. Logically, most people reportedly suspect her “confession” on Friday was made under pressure from Iranian authorities.

“It wasn’t for attracting attention,” one of the arrested women said through tears in a broadcast on Friday, according to The Guardian. “I had some followers and these videos were for them. I did not have any intention to encourage others doing the same… I didn’t work with a team, I received no training. I only do gymnastics.”

Some of the videos of Hojabri are still available online on both Instagram and Twitter and show her doing nothing that would be considered scandalous to even conservative American audiences.

Women in Iran have posted protest videos of themselves dancing on Instagram, and other protests against the country’s hijab laws have erupted in recent months. The hijab has been mandatory in Iran ever since the revolution in 1979.

As the BBC notes, six Iranian girls were given sentences of a year in prison and 91 lashes after they were convicted in 2014 of positing videos of themselves dancing to the Pharrell Williams song “Happy.”

It’s not clear what sentence Hojabri might face for her dancing videos but she has been reportedly released on bail along with the other three women. According to the Associated Press, Iranian authorities are considering blocking access to Instagram, but no final decision has been made. People in Iran typically get around government blocks of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube by using VPNs.

[Associated Press and BBC and The Guardian]

Correction: This article originally stated that the hashtag, مائده_هژیری, translated to “dancing is not a crime.” It is, in fact, her name. Gizmodo regrets the error.</s>Iran has detained a teenager who posted dance videos on her Instagram page, which has more than 40,000 followers.

State TV broadcast a video recently in which Maedeh Hojabri, who is believed to be 18 or 19, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that she wasn’t encouraging others to follow her example. Her face was blurred in the video.

Several other individuals detained for similar charges appeared in the video.

Iranian state TV has a record of airing confessions that rights activists say have been made under duress.

Hojabri had posted dozens of photos and videos on her Instagram account where she is seen dancing to Western pop and rap music. In the posts she appears without the obligatory Islamic dress code that requires women to cover their hair and body in public.

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.</s>Iranian women are dancing in public and posting videos of themselves online to protest the arrest of a teenage Instagram star.

Maedeh Hojabri gained a large social media following for her dancing videos. To the tune of Western and Iranian pop and rap music, the teenager bopped and twirled in her bedroom without wearing the compulsory Islamic headscarf or hijab.

In Iran, women are required to cover their hair while out in public, and dancing with the opposite sex is prohibited unless it is in front of immediate family members, according to the BBC.

Hojabri appeared on state television Friday and confessed to violating moral conventions, in what activists say was a forced appearance. She was one of several people recently detained on similar charges before being released on bail, the Associated Press reports.

“It wasn’t for attracting attention,” she said, according to the ‘s translation. “I had some followers and these videos were for them. I did not have any intention to encourage others doing the same … I didn’t work with a team, I received no training. I only do gymnastics.”

Hojabri’s account has since been suspended, but social media users have been sharing her videos.

With hashtags that translate as #dance to freedom and #dancing_isn’t_a_crime, Iranian women, many also without the mandatory hijab, have started posting their own videos in support of Hojabri.

In an Instagram post translated by the , blogger Hossein Ronaghi wrote, “If you told people anywhere in the world that 17 and 18-year-old girls are arrested for their dance, happiness and beauty on charges of spreading indecency, while child rapists and others are free, they would laugh! Because for them, it’s unbelievable!”

Iranian authorities have previously cracked down on dancing. Last August, six people were reportedly arrested for Zumba dancing.

In 2014, six Iranians, three men and three unveiled women, received suspended sentences of one year imprisonment and 91 lashes for a video that showed them dancing on Tehran’s rooftops to Pharrell William’s song “Happy.”</s>ANKARA: Iranians on social media mocked clerical rulers on Monday after the hardline judiciary arrested a teenage girl for posting on Instagram videos of herself dancing in her room.

Critics of the arrest of gymnast Maedeh Hojabri, 18, used the hashtag #Dancingisnotacrime and Iranian women posted videos of themselves dancing in public.

"You will be laughed at if you tell people anywhere in the world that 17 and 18-year-old girls are arrested for their dance, happiness and beauty on charges of spreading indecency, while child rapists and others are free," wrote Iranian blogger and political dissident Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki.

Iranian state TV aired a video in which she apologized for "breaking moral norms" but said any breach was not her intention. Some Iranian news websites reported three other people had been arrested on similar charges in the past weeks. The reports said they were released on bail.

"I had no bad intentions ... I did not want to encourage others to do the same ... I did not work with a network," a crying Hojabri told TV on Friday.

Before her account was blocked by Iranian authorities, Hojabri had posted around 300 videos on her Instagram account – in which she appeared without wearing the compulsory Islamic headscarf.

Under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, women are required to wear headscarves and modest clothing in public and are banned from dancing in public.

The potential charges against Hojabri were not specified, but she is likely to be accused of running afoul of Islamic codes of behavior that call for modesty in attire and behavior.

"Art is the language of the soul, highest of the hopes, not a crime, said Twitter user @samzglam. Sharing her own dancing clip, @Marun_1 said :"usually I don't share pictures and videos but today is an important day."

Access to many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Telegram messaging app are blocked in Iran. Iranian officials said last week the judiciary was considering blocking access to Instagram.

But many Iranians evade the filtering through the use of VPN software, which provides encrypted links directly to private networks abroad, and can allow a computer to behave as if it is based in another country.

In April, the judiciary arrested a senior Iranian official after a video posted online that showed young boys and girls dancing in public in the northeastern holy Shi'ite city of Mashhad for undermining public decency".

In 2014, a group of Pharrell Williams fans arrested for sharing videos of themselves dancing to the song Happy on the rooftops of Tehran and got suspended sentences of imprisonment and lashes.</s>TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has detained a teenage girl who posted dance videos on Instagram and attracted tens of thousands of followers.

State TV broadcast a video on Friday in which Maedeh Hojabri, 18-year-old gymnast, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that was not her intention, and that she was only trying to gain more followers. It was unclear whether her statement was made under duress.

Shabooneh, a local news website, said Hojabri and three other individuals were detained on similar charges in recent weeks before being released on bail.

She had posted around 300 videos on her account, many of which showed her dancing in both Iranian and Western styles. She also appeared in videos without wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf. Her performances had thousands of followers on various accounts with her name on them, ranging from 12,000 to 66,000 followers. None of the accounts were verified.

Iranian police have said they plan to shut down similar accounts on Instagram, and the judiciary is considering blocking access to the site.

Iran has already blocked access to many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Telegram messaging app. Millions of Iranians continue to use the sites through proxies and VPNs.

Iran's judiciary and security forces are dominated by hard-liners who launch periodic crackdowns on behavior deemed un-Islamic. The latest arrests came amid a series of protests against the government's handling of the economy.

In 2014 authorities sentenced six young men and women to suspended prison terms after they appeared in a video dancing to Pharrell Williams' song "Happy."</s>Iranian Instagram celebrity and dancer Maedeh Hojabri would have been just another teenager in most parts of the world: operating multiple social media accounts and uploading videos of herself dancing.

But Hojabri's videos are now suddenly at the center of the latest conflict between religious hard-liners and Iranian liberals seeking more liberties.

Officials arrested the 17- or 18-year-old Hojabri after she shared videos of herself dancing to Western and Iranian music at home with her tens of thousands of followers. The tussle over social codes is nothing new in Iran. It has played out in many ways for decades: Iranian musicians tapping into Western influences, for example, or Iranian women challenging authorities by pushing back their headscarves to almost gravity-defying styles.

The Internet age, however, has added a new dimension of dissent. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has often described websites as something akin to a Trojan Horse of Western culture and values.

Iranian media outlets reported that authorities were looking into banning more Instagram accounts or shutting down access to the site completely. Other individuals besides Hojabri also appear to have been detained on similar charges. Their identities are still unknown and all of them were reportedly released on bail.

In response to the arrest, some women took to social media to post videos of themselves dancing, in support of Hojabri, using the Iranian version of the hashtag #dancing_isn't_a_crime. (Women in Iran are prohibited from dancing in front of men, except if those male observers are close family members.)

“I'm dancing so that they (the authorities) see and know that they cannot take away our happiness and hope by arresting teenagers and (girls like) Maedeh,” the BBC translated the tweet of one supporter.

Hojabri and others facing similar accusations previously appeared on Iranian state TV in a video in which the young gymnast — potentially speaking under duress — acknowledged producing the videos.

“I had some followers and these videos were for them. I did not have any intention to encourage others doing the same. … I didn’t work with a team, I received no training. I only do gymnastics,” the Guardian newspaper quoted her as saying in the clip broadcast on Iranian state TV.

Hojabri's arrest bears similarities with a 2014 incident in which six young Iranians were arrested for producing a video based on the Pharrell Williams song “Happy.” The video quickly went viral but also provoked the dismay of conservative Iranian authorities.

Following their arrest, Iranian state television showed the detainees admitting that they were involved in the “Happy” production, even though they insisted that they had been tricked into participating. As in Hojabri's case, Iranian TV did not show the faces of the individuals making the confessions. Their sentence — one year in prison and 91 lashes — was later suspended.

The arrests at the time highlighted the divides in the country's leadership. Even though President Hassan Rouhani has repeatedly indicated that he may favor opening up Iran's restrictive official Internet, enforcing laws online is ultimately up to the judiciary, which is controlled by religious hard-liners.

With an increasing number of protests taking place across Iran amid economic woes, conservatives have adopted a more repressive approach in recent months. And while authorities sometimes turn a blind eye on some violations of the country's strict laws on female clothing or Western music, Iran still regularly punishes violations to set examples.

Last year, for instance, four men and two women were detained for teaching the Colombian fitness routine Zumba and “Western” dances. Authorities became aware of the group after its members posted videos of themselves dancing on Instagram and other social media platforms.

The group was later charged over seeking to “change lifestyles and promote a lack of hijab,” a reference to head coverings for women.

Russia’s World Cup dream ends, on and off the field

Unrest in Haiti leaves dozens from American church groups stranded and unable to leave

No, Pompeo did not give Kim Jong Un a ‘Rocket Man’ CD, State Department says</s>Iran has detained a teenage girl who posted dance videos on Instagram and attracted tens of thousands of followers.

State TV broadcast a video on Friday in which Maedeh Hojabri, 18-year-old gymnast, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that was not her intention, and that she was only trying to gain more followers. It was unclear whether her statement was made under duress.

Shabooneh, a local news website, said Hojabri and three other individuals were detained on similar charges in recent weeks before being released on bail.

She had posted around 300 videos on her account, many of which showed her dancing in both Iranian and Western styles. She also appeared in videos without wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf. Her performances had thousands of followers on various accounts with her name on them, ranging from 12,000 to 66,000 followers. None of the accounts were verified.

Iranian police have said they plan to shut down similar accounts on Instagram, and the judiciary is considering blocking access to the site.

Iran has already blocked access to many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Telegram messaging app. Millions of Iranians continue to use the sites through proxies and VPNs.

Iran's judiciary and security forces are dominated by hard-liners who launch periodic crackdowns on behavior deemed un-Islamic. The latest arrests came amid a series of protests against the government's handling of the economy.</s>Iran has detained a teenager who posted dance videos on Instagram and attracted tens of thousands of followers.

State TV broadcast a video on Friday in which Maedeh Hojabri, 18, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that was not her intention. It was unclear whether her statement was made under duress.

She had posted around 300 videos on her account, many of which showed her dancing. She also appeared in videos without wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf. She had some 43,000 followers.

Iranian police have said they plan to shut down similar accounts on Instagram, and the judiciary is considering blocking access to the site. Iran already blocks , and other social media, though many Iranians access them through proxies and VPNs.</s>TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has detained a teenage girl who posted dance videos on Instagram and attracted tens of thousands of followers.

State TV broadcast a video on Friday in which Maedeh Hojabri, 18-year-old gymnast, acknowledged breaking moral norms while insisting that was not her intention, and that she was only trying to gain more followers. It was unclear whether her statement was made under duress.

Shabooneh, a local news website, said Hojabri and three other individuals were detained on similar charges in recent weeks before being released on bail.

She had posted around 300 videos on her account, many of which showed her dancing in both Iranian and Western styles. She also appeared in videos without wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf. Her performances had thousands of followers on various accounts with her name on them, ranging from 12,000 to 66,000 followers. None of the accounts were verified.

Iranian police have said they plan to shut down similar accounts on Instagram, and the judiciary is considering blocking access to the site.

Iran has already blocked access to many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Telegram messaging app. Millions of Iranians continue to use the sites through proxies and VPNs.

Iran’s judiciary and security forces are dominated by hard-liners who launch periodic crackdowns on behaviour deemed un-Islamic. The latest arrests came amid a series of protests against the government’s handling of the economy.

In 2014 authorities sentenced six young men and women to suspended prison terms after they appeared in a video dancing to Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy.”
Iranian women post videos of themselves dancing to protest the arrest of Instagram blogger Maedeh Hojabri.