The six Iranians who were arrested in May for dancing to Pharrell Williams' hit "Happy" in a YouTube video were recently sentenced to prison time and lashings.
Most of the people involved with the video, which is titled "Happy We Are From Tehran" and shows three males dancing with three unveiled females, received six months in prison with one member getting a year, BBC News reports. In addition, the members were sentenced to 91 lashes for breaking the Islamic laws of dancing with the opposite sex and women appearing without a veil. The sentences were suspended for three years, however, and if the participants don't reoffend, they will not go to prison.
Law officials in Iran learned about the video in May after it received 150,000 views. The participants appeared on local TV shortly thereafter claiming that they had been fooled into making the video for an audition. The video currently has more than one million views.
"After a vulgar clip which hurt public chastity was released in cyberspace, police decided to identify those involved in making that clip," Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia said at the time, according to ABC.
Williams commented on the arrests via Facebook writing, "It is beyond sad that these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness." A picture of the six Iranians with the hashtag "#FreeHappyIranians" accompanied the post. With so much outside support, the people behind the movie were released from custody shortly after being detained. President Hassan Rouhani tweeted a promising message on the day of their release. "#Happiness is our people's right. We shouldn't be too hard on behaviors caused by joy."
Watch the video below.
