Less than a week ago, thirty people in Iran were arrested after taking part in a private yoga class. This has caused quite a rumble across social media platforms in the country.
The yoga participants were apprehended at a private residence in Gorgan, a city in northern Iran. The Islamic establishment in Iran does not permit any mixed-gender activities, and the class was reportedly a mixed class. Teaching yoga on a professional level is also not allowed in the country.
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According to local justice department official Massoud Soleimani, the instructor (who was also arrested) had advertised the class on Instagram and did not have a license to hold the class.
Mr. Soleimani stated, according to The Tasnim news agency:
those taking part were wearing “inappropriate outfits” and had “behaved inappropriately”1
Mr. Soleimani, who is the deputy chief of the Islamic Revolution Court in Gorgan (the capital of the Golestan Province) indicated that law enforcement had been keeping a close eye on the residence for some time, but he provided no additional details about the apparel or conduct of those arrested.
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The arrest has become a trending topic and caused quite a stir in online social media conversations. One Twitter user commented:
“They [Iranian authorities] think even the word yoga is problematic based on the Sharia”1
Another tweeter chimed in, hinting to the deployment of US warships to the region:
“An establishment that finds even yoga harmful does not need the USS Abraham Lincoln warship to end its existence”1
Others in the conversation have cancelled plans to attend yoga classes following the arrests, and have stated that Iranian authorities need to do a better job informing their citizens of what they are allowed to do in their country.
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In 2017 the popular Columbian dance exercise zumba was banned by Iran’s Sport for All Federation, who wrote a letter to Iran’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports stating that zumba, (and similar activities) conflicted with “Islamic ideology”.1
The ban includes dance exercises with “any harmonious movement or body-shaking instruction”.1
Yoga fans have gathered publicly in Iran over the past several years, but the “underground”1 and “unIslamic”1 classes advertised on social media are not welcome.
Mr. Soleimani denounced the “lack of surveillance of activities”1 on social media platforms in the country when announcing the arrests. Twitter is already officially banned in Iran, and apparently authorities have recently increased surveillance of Instagram.
In addition to the recent arrests for participating in yoga, the social media accounts of at least three street musicians were allegedly seized for broadcasting “criminal content”1. And female singer Negar Moazzam, whose Instagram account is no longer public, is currently being investigated in the country’s Isfahan Province for performing solo in public for a group of tourists.
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