We’ve seen countless tribute videos to Pharrell’s hit Happy with people all wanting to spread a bit of the feel-good vibe.
Now six Iranians who tried recreate their own version of the dance in Tehrain have been arrested and forced to apologise on state television after posting a video online of them dancing to the track.
The video shows the six teenagers – three men and three women – dancing to the music, but the women were not wearing veils and the behaviour in the video led police to arrest a number of people.
Footage shown on state TV show the group being interrogated by police, who labelled their video “vulgar”, saying it “hurt public chastity”.
According to the New York Times, the six Iranians said they did not know the footage would be broadcast and the detainees ‘confessed their criminal acts’.
Pharrell took to his Twitter to support his fans shot in the video, posting:
It’s beyond sad these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness http://t.co/XV1VAAJeYI
— Pharrell Williams (@Pharrell) May 21, 2014
In an interview with news site IranWire , one of the female dancers claimed that the unveiled women had worn wigs to conform with the country’s Islamic dress codes in the video, but that this was ignored by police at the time of the arrest.
The video hit over 160,000 views before the team were forced to set the clip private from ongoing pressure from authorities. An alternative video has now been released by the group.
