A viral dance and ‘happiness campaign’ is frustrating Iranian clerics

Iran is being rocked by a new form of anti-government protest: a viral dance craze to an upbeat folk song with the crowd clapping and chanting the rhythmic refrain: “oh, oh, oh, oh.”

In cities across Iran, men and women of all ages swivel their hips, wave their arms in the air and sing the catchy lines of the song, according to videos posted on social media, television news channels such as BBC Persian and Iranians interviewed.

People dance on the street, in shops, at sports stadiumsin classrooms, shopping centres, restaurants, gyms, parties and anywhere else they gather. In Tehran, traffic was stopped with a major force highway tunnel for an improvised dance party to the song. young women, hair uncovered and flowing, dancing in parks and young men performed a choreographed hip-hop dance.

“It is clear that participating in this dance trend sends a strong message,” said Mohammad Aghapour, 32, a DJ who goes by the professional name DJSonami, in an interview from Tehran. “It’s a way to protest and demand our freedom and happiness.”

In most countries, dancing and singing in public is not considered taboo. But in Iran, dancing in public is prohibited, especially by women and between men and women. Although the rule is regularly defied, its enforcement has been arbitrary. Music, dance and song are deeply rooted in Iranian culture and attempts by Muslim clerics to take that path in their 43-year rule have largely failed.

But rarely has a single song and dance evolved into a collective act of civil disobedience. It all started at the end of November with an old man at a fish market in the northern city of Rasht.

Dressed in a white suit the man, Sadegh Bana Motejaded, 70, owner of a small market stall energetically tossed and bumped. He serenaded the crowd with a national anthem and encouraged others to join in with an upbeat sound – helheleh kon, velveleh could. A small group of men clapped and shouted back the rhythmic chorus, “O, oh, oh, oh, oh.”

Mr Bana Motejaded is known in the city by his nickname Booghy, derived from the Persian word for megaphone. For years he had a side gig at the football stadium, where he carried a megaphone, walked the stands and energized the fans by honking loudly. according to videos on his page and local media reports.

Then came the crackdown. Local police in Rasht announced on December 7 that they had arrested a group of twelve men who appeared in the video, closed their Instagram pages and removed the video from several websites.

On Mr Bana Motejaded’s Instagram page, which had around 128,000 followers at the time, an emblem of the judiciary appeared in place of his profile photo. All his messages were gone and instead one message from the judiciary read: “this page has been closed for creating criminal content” and that the person who had engaged in the activity “has been dealt with.”

A person close to Mr. Bana Motejaded, who was familiar with the details of the arrests and asked that his name not be published for his own safety, said in a telephone interview from Rasht that the local Revolutionary Guards intelligence branch had identified the men had called and then interrogated them for hours. He said they were blindfolded, beaten, threatened with legal action and forced to sign a pledge never to sing or dance in public again.

He said Mr Bana Motejaded was held for several hours and accused of incitement to the government. As part of the crackdown, police swarmed buskers performing in Rasht, arresting some and confiscating their instruments, he said.

The nationwide, women-led uprising that erupted across Iran in 2022 has been largely crushed with violence, but protests are persisting in other, creative ways, such as Ashura religious participants changing the words of religious ballads to express their disdain to reflect. the rulers of the Islamic Republic and the current dance trend.

News of the arrests spread like wildfire through Iran, fueling outrage. Many people posted angry messages on social media accusing the government of being at war with happiness. They said authorities quickly rounded up citizens for no other crime than joy, but failed to arrest officials accused of rampant corruption.

“The regime has no common sense,” said Mahan, a 50-year-old doctor in the city of Rasht, who asked that his last name not be used for fear of retaliation. “It has become like an authoritarian father, unable to protect and guide his family, and resorts to violence as the only way to feel relevant and powerful.”

People mobilized, filming herself dancing everywhere to the song, which mimics Mr. Bana Motejaded’s dance moves. They posted the videos on social media and distributed them widely through applications such as WhatsApp, calling it the “happiness campaign.”

Mr. Aghapour’s remix of the song, including the original dance generated 80 million views since he posted it to his Instagram page on December 1.

Local newspapers ran front-page stories questioning the wisdom of the crackdown, saying they had backfired by causing an embarrassing breach of government regulations. Mohammad Fazeli, a leading sociologist, called it a ‘defeat during maneuvering’ and a ‘self-made disaster’, in a message on X.

“How to turn a simple singer into an oppositional activist,” read a headline in the conservative newspaper Farhikhtegan. Some officials and clerics said the fierce reaction showed the Islamic Republic was out of step with public opinion.

“If an old man shows happiness outside his shop, we consider him a criminal, but if he had danced during our religious ceremonies, he would be praised,” said Ezzatollah Zarghami, the tourism minister and former commander of the Guard who for many years was the head of state television. “We have a problem with projecting happiness.”

The dance protests became so contagious that even the The Asian Football Association [AFC] official Farsi page with almost 4 million followers posted a video compilation of some Iranian football stars and teams dancing and cheering to the song.

The government withdrew. Police in Gilan province issued a statement on Monday denying that Mr Bana Motejaded was ever arrested. They revived his Instagram page with all his previous posts about dancing and singing. Local news outlets flocked to interview him and in a video that some say was likely coerced, he says he was not arrested.

He now has nearly a million followers on his Instagram page and is hailed by many Iranians as a national hero who inadvertently sparked renewed calls for change.