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Iran Dancer Detained After Performance
Thursday December 25, 2003 9:01 PM
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's best-known female dancer and 24 of her students have been detained on charges of dancing in public - for an all-female audience, her husband said Thursday.
Although there are no written laws against dancing, Iran's hard-line clerics have banned the activity, which they consider a promotion of moral corruption.
Farzaneh Kaboli and 24 of her students were detained Wednesday night as they were performing folk dances on the second night of a two-week program at Tehran's prestigious Vahdat Hall, Hadi Marzban said.
Marzban said the students were freed Thursday after signing statements pledging not to perform again but Kaboli was taken to Evin Prison, north of Tehran.
``It was a program of rhythmical movements displaying folk dance of various provinces of Iran to an all-female audience. The program had been authorized by the Culture Ministry,'' a distressed Marzban told The Associated Press.
Marzban said efforts by pro-reform government authorities failed to prevent police from taking Kaboli to prison. She has not yet been charged.
Judicial officials were not available for comment, as Thursday is the first day of the weekend in Iran.
Marzban, an actor, insisted that his wife did not teach dancing.
``She was not teaching dance. She was just displaying various rhythmical programs existing in different parts of Iran,'' he said.
Although Kaboli has acted in some films shown on hard-line-controlled state-run television, she was banned from working for several years in the 1990s after the circulation of a video that showed her dancing before a male audience in a private party.
Kaboli's dance programs, available on bootlegged video, are widely watched by Iranian women.
Last year, a hard-line court in Tehran barred Mohammad Khordadian, Iran's top male dancer, from giving dance classes for life and banned him from leaving Iran for 10 years.
Khordadian, based in Los Angeles, returned to the United States after an appeals court lifted the travel ban. The appeals court also cut in half a 10-year suspended jail term against Khordadian.
Khordadian, whose dance programs are widely watched by Iranian expatriates and many inside Iran via satellite, has reportedly resumed dance classes in Los Angeles - meaning he would likely be jailed if he returns to Iran.
Sweeping social restrictions imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution have gradually been eased since the 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami. However, the judiciary, controlled by unelected hard-liners, does punish women who break the longtime taboos.
Under Iranian law, women must wear head scarves in public and the mingling of unrelated men and women is frowned upon by hard-liners.
Iran Dancer Detained After Performance
Thursday December 25, 2003 9:01 PM
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's best-known female dancer and 24 of her students have been detained on charges of dancing in public - for an all-female audience, her husband said Thursday.
Although there are no written laws against dancing, Iran's hard-line clerics have banned the activity, which they consider a promotion of moral corruption.
Farzaneh Kaboli and 24 of her students were detained Wednesday night as they were performing folk dances on the second night of a two-week program at Tehran's prestigious Vahdat Hall, Hadi Marzban said.
Marzban said the students were freed Thursday after signing statements pledging not to perform again but Kaboli was taken to Evin Prison, north of Tehran.
``It was a program of rhythmical movements displaying folk dance of various provinces of Iran to an all-female audience. The program had been authorized by the Culture Ministry,'' a distressed Marzban told The Associated Press.
Marzban said efforts by pro-reform government authorities failed to prevent police from taking Kaboli to prison. She has not yet been charged.
Judicial officials were not available for comment, as Thursday is the first day of the weekend in Iran.
Marzban, an actor, insisted that his wife did not teach dancing.
``She was not teaching dance. She was just displaying various rhythmical programs existing in different parts of Iran,'' he said.
Although Kaboli has acted in some films shown on hard-line-controlled state-run television, she was banned from working for several years in the 1990s after the circulation of a video that showed her dancing before a male audience in a private party.
Kaboli's dance programs, available on bootlegged video, are widely watched by Iranian women.
Last year, a hard-line court in Tehran barred Mohammad Khordadian, Iran's top male dancer, from giving dance classes for life and banned him from leaving Iran for 10 years.
Khordadian, based in Los Angeles, returned to the United States after an appeals court lifted the travel ban. The appeals court also cut in half a 10-year suspended jail term against Khordadian.
Khordadian, whose dance programs are widely watched by Iranian expatriates and many inside Iran via satellite, has reportedly resumed dance classes in Los Angeles - meaning he would likely be jailed if he returns to Iran.
Sweeping social restrictions imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution have gradually been eased since the 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami. However, the judiciary, controlled by unelected hard-liners, does punish women who break the longtime taboos.
Under Iranian law, women must wear head scarves in public and the mingling of unrelated men and women is frowned upon by hard-liners.
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