Amid the ongoing Iran-Israel tensions, a video showing five women dancing outdoors to a song called ‘Calm Down’ by Nigerian singer Rema and Selena Gomez, has gone viral on social media.
Those sharing have claimed that it shows the women in Iran and wrote, “After over 45 years of restrictions, women are declaring enough is enough! They are dancing in public, challenging bans on singing and showing their hair.” (sic.)
What we found: At first, we divided the clip into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.
We came across the same clip on YouTube from 9 March 2023. It noted, "Girls dancing in Ekbatan, Tehran on March 8th."
We, then, came across a report from Iran International from March 2023, featuring a similar frame as the viral video.
It noted that on International Women’s Day, a 40-second clip featuring five young women, without the required headscarf, dancing in Tehran after which the regime’s security forces initiated a search for the girls.
The trainer of the troupe published the video on Instagram and was the first to be identified.
She was compelled to take down the video and deactivate her account. Later, local news portals noted that the authorities were searching for the teenagers.
Ekbatan has been a focal point of continuous protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who passed away in September 2022 while in police detention after her arrest for not wearing her headscarf "correctly."
It was found that the five girls were first called in and given a warning, then summoned again and held for two days before being coerced into creating a video of forced confessions and expressing regret.
Local news portal, Shahrak Ekbatan posted a visual of the 'forced' confession to express regret over dancing in public in Tehran.
Singer Rema also re-shared the dance clip of the girls and wrote, "To all the beautiful women who are fighting for a better world, I’m inspired by you, I sing for you and I dream with you." (sic.)
Conclusion: An old clip from 2023 showing women dancing in public has gone viral as recent on social media.
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