This past week several young Iranians were arrested in Tehran for recording a music video dancing along to Grammy winning, Pharrell Williams’ hit song, “Happy.” Their version of the music video received 30,000 hits before being removed from the original account.
Despite the widespread approval and enjoyment the video received, Tehran officials aimed to censure the young adults. Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia made a statement about the video: “After a vulgar clip which hurt public chastity was released in cyberspace, police decided to identify those involved in making that clip,” and subsequently arrest them.
The creators of the clip told the Iran Wire that they merely “wanted to tell the world that the Iranian capital is full of lively young people and change the harsh and rough image that the world sees on the news.”
A Twitter hashtag “#FreeHappyIranians” spread throughout the web in support of the imprisoned adults on the premise that nobody should be jailed for expressing mere happiness.
Later, Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani tweeted” “#Happiness is our people’s right. We shouldn’t be too hard on behaviors caused by joy.” The creators of the video have since been released from custody, except for the clip’s director.
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