Iran’s best-known female dancer and 24 of her students were 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.
Farzaneh Kaboli and the 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.
Marzban said efforts by pro-reform government authorities failed to prevent police from taking Kaboli to prison.
“She was not teaching dance. She was just displaying various rhythmical programs existing in different parts of Iran,” he said.
