Flashermac Posted May 21, 2014 Report Share Posted May 21, 2014 A group of Iranian fans who created a tribute to Pharrell Williams' hit song Happy have been arrested. The video shows three men and three unveiled women dancing to the song on the streets and rooftops of Tehran. Police chief Hossein Sajedinia said the "vulgar clip" had "hurt public chastity", the ISNA news agency said. Iran's state-run TV broadcast a programme on Tuesday, apparently showing the men and women confessing on camera. A subtitled edition of the TV clip, posted on YouTube, identified the detainees as "actors" who claimed they were tricked into making the Happy video for an audition. "They told me they are making a feature film and they had a permit for it," said one man in the video. "They said those things and they fooled me." Another young woman added: "They had promised us not to publish the video." According to some unconfirmed reports, a total of 13 people were arrested in connection with the video, but official sources have not confirmed the exact number of detainees. Williams, whose song was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year, has protested at the arrests. "It is beyond sad that these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness," the singer wrote on his Facebook page. Under Iran's interpretation of Islamic law, women must cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothing meant to preserve their modesty. Patrols of so-called "morality police" regularly enforce standards of Islamic dress on Iran's streets. However, the rules are widely flouted. The internet is also heavily filtered in Iran, with the authorities blocking access to popular social networking sites. The "Happy we are from Tehran" video, originally posted in March, has now been seen more than 40,000 times. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27499642 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2014 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg5qdIxVcz8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2014 Analysis: Ali Hamedani BBC Persian The young people in the video are students, film-makers and photographers. Their video appeared during the Persian New Year, at the end of March, and it was an instant hit on Iranian social media sites, inspiring several copies. It is just the latest example of young Iranians using the internet to challenge the restrictions on their everyday lives. In the past month, hundreds of Iranian women have been defying the rules requiring them to cover their heads in public, by sending photographs of themselves without headscarves, to a newly created Facebook site called "My Stealthy Freedom". Arash Sobhani, leader singer of the Iranian underground rock group Kiosk, who now lives in the US told BBC Persian that the Iranian authorities continuing attempts to crackdown on "un-Islamic" behaviour were not working. "They banned our music, broke our guitars, attacked our parties and stopped our concerts," he said. "But did we stop? No!" http://www.bbc.com/n...t-arts-27499642 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bust Posted May 22, 2014 Report Share Posted May 22, 2014 Should arrest Pharrell Williams for wearing that stupid hat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baa99 Posted May 22, 2014 Report Share Posted May 22, 2014 No happiness in Iran. Notice anything different in the KSA version? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKi4iAl_qb0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioman Posted May 22, 2014 Report Share Posted May 22, 2014 It's all very gay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Radley Posted May 22, 2014 Report Share Posted May 22, 2014 No women present lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unit731 Posted May 22, 2014 Report Share Posted May 22, 2014 No women present lol Apparently . . . . there are no happy women ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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