Overview

Maedeh Hojabri's Arrest for Indecency refers to the Iranian government's arrest of 19-year-old Instagram celebrity Maedeh Hojabri for posting videos of herself dancing without a hijab.

Background

Within the Islamic Republic in Iran, women must wear headscarves whenever they are in public and dancing in public is strictly prohibited if not in the company of family members.^[6] In July 2018, Hojabri was arrested for posting videos of herself dancing without to Western and Iranian music in her home to Instagram. According to Al Jazeera,^[5] many of Hojabri's videos were viewed nearly one million times prior to her arrest.

Developments

Confession

On July 6th, 2018, Hojabri appeared on the state television program Wrong Path to purportedly confess to her crimes, where she was shown crying and shaking. Many speculated that the confession was forced by the Iranian government.

"It wasn’t for attracting attention. I had some followers and these videos were for them. I did not have any intention to encourage others doing the same … I didn’t work with a team, I received no training. I only do gymnastics."

Online Reaction

On July 7th, 2018, Twitter user @AlinejadMasih posted one of Hojabri's dancing videos along with an announcement that she had been arrested by the Iranian government (shown below). Within 72 hours, the tweet gathered upwards of 19,500 likes and 10,300 retweets.

That day, @AlinejahMasih posted a video of herself dancing at a park in Tehran in support of Hojabri (shown below).

The following day, Twitter user @NegarMortazavi tweeted another video of Hojabri dancing along with a message about her arrest, claiming that she had 600,000 followers on her Instagram feed (shown below).

On July 9th, 2018, Redditor bint_alkhandaq submitted a post about Hojabri's arrest to /r/atheism,^[3] where it received more than 5,200 points (97% upvoted) and 200 comments within 24 hours.

Search Interest

External References