They searched for them as criminals are searched for. They also got to know them thanks to CCTV surveillance cameras. When they found out their names, they called them to the alarm. Then, unhappy, they called them this time to lock them up in jail for two days. At last they were brought back and, with their heads covered, forced to make a forced confession: “We are guilty of our dancing.”

This is the “crime”: Akbatan, a suburb of Tehran, on March 8, on International Women’s Day, five girls recorded a video in front of two gray apartment buildings in the suburbs, where They danced Calm down, hit by Rima and Selena Gomez. Then, as teens living in free countries do, they posted it on TikTok. Hair in the wind, navel in sight, kisses blowing on the lens, so brave students defied Khamenei’s regime, tortured, and hanged. They dealt with it by dancing to a pop song that said, “Baby, calm down. Girl, your body is in my heart.”

In Iran, women are not allowed to dance in public and must wear a headscarf. So, if you look closely, the police have only enforced the law and punished the five “criminals” who, as it has been happening for six months, since the killing of Mohsa Amini, confronted the Ayatollah with methods and methods opposite to those. from Pasdaran. To their humiliation, in the “Repentance” video, which was filmed in front of the same buildings as the accused building, the girls are arranged as in the choreography.

The regime’s repression, which in some cases operates in the streets and keeps protesters at home, fails to stem a wave, indeed, the wave of posts on social networks against the dictatorship. also this time, Dance Calm down It instantly turned into a viral action that was repeated dozens and hundreds of times. Many Iranian girls danced, in other streets, bedrooms and squares, spreading their dances against Khamenei.
“In recent days, women have returned to the first symbol of these protests: dance, which is freedom. Gen. Z is peaceful and rejects ideology: this displaces the regime,” comments Pegman Abdelmohamady, professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Trento.

Next Tuesday is the last day of the year in the Persian calendar and this is traditionally the time of celebration. Last night, citizens took the opportunity to return to the streets and demonstrate. In addition to the end of the regime, the girls burned their headscarves and everyone demanded answers about the 5,000 schoolgirls who were poisoned in schools. Dozens of videos showing demonstrations in several cities as well as in Tehran, directly in the Ekbatan district. Today is the day when Shaharshanbeh Suri is celebrated, one of the most important New Year holidays and more protests are expected. while, Rima, singer Calm downHe writes on Twitter: “To all the women who are fighting for a better world, I am inspired by you, I sing for you and dream with you.”.