BBC confirmed that the couple’s arrest got here after they posted the video on social media.

CBS Information reported that the Iranian state media outlet Mizan claimed Haghighi and Ahmadi weren’t detained for dancing however for stoking resistance efforts of their Instagram posts by “encouraging people to riot against the country and subversion.”

Mizan disputed the 10-year punishment and claimed the couple obtained a five-year jail sentence for publishing “a call for protests.”

“It is clear that anti-revolutionary forces have falsely reported the charges by claiming each were sentenced to 10 years,” the Islamic Republic judiciary’s Mizan information company stated, reported Reuters.

“Astiazh Haghighi and Amir Mohammad Ahmadi had published a call for a rally on November 4 and called for riots on their Instagram pages,” Mizan’s assertion reads, per CBS Information. “During the riots, they used their page to advertise calls, including the call for November 4.”

The couple was individually sentenced by a Tehran court docket to jail for 10 years and 6 months every, for a complete of 21 years mixed, on counts of “promotion of impurity and indecency, assembly and collusion against national security, and propaganda against the regime,” the Washington Submit stated Wednesday. The couple have additionally been banned from social media and aren’t allowed to depart the nation for 2 years. Whereas their profiles stay public, there haven’t been posts on Haghighi’s feed since Sept. 28, 2022. Ahmadi’s final put up was in the beginning of September.

Iranians have been protesting in rising numbers in opposition to the federal government’s theocratic rule, and authorities have been cracking down. A lot of the general public dissent was sparked final yr by the demise of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old lady who was arrested by Iran’s morality police for the improper sporting of a hijab. Amini died days later of their custody.

Iranian officers have since arrested public figures who’ve spoken out in opposition to the federal government’s response to Amini’s demise. This contains the arrests of outstanding actor Taraneh Alidoosti and movie star chef Navab Ebrahimi.

Haghighi spoke out in assist of Amini in September. In an Instagram put up, she wrote, “Hoping tomorrow will be a better tomorrow. Let’s hold each other’s hands and support each other. We are all Iranians and we need to help each other.”