Being 'Happy' land Iranian youths in jail, lashes

Tehran, Sept 20: The seven Iranian youths, whose video of Pharrell Williams 'Happy Song' went viral a few months ago were given suspended jail and lashing sentences, said a lawyer on Friday.

The video was recorded on a smartphone and uploaded multiple times on YouTube. The main cause of the tension was the three unveiled girls dancing in secluded alleys, rooftops and a room with three men.

Video-clipped as a mere expression of happiness, the Islamic state took it as a breach of Islamic republic's values and was said to be "vulger" in nature.

They were arrested in May and were then released after apologising on air.

They were tried for "illegal distribution of a film" and "illicit relations".

One of the girls who uploaded the video was sentenced to a year of prison and 91 lashes. The other five and the director of the film were sentences to 6 months jail and 91 lashes each.

All of these sentences were suspended for 3 years on the condition that they committed a similar mistake.

The punishments, however, were widely criticized specially by the USA. Washington urged Iran "to respect human rights that are protected by its own constitution as well as its international obligations."

According to NDTV and the NewsMinute, human rights groups denounced Iran's judgement saying,"With these sentences, the absurd meets the unjust. would be a ludicrous outcome; these individuals will have been convicted and branded criminals purely for making a music video celebrating happiness."

Wwhile Irani authorities are trying to block social media sites that are criticizing the incident, President Hassan Rouhani too said on a Twitter account,"appiness is our people's right. We shouldn't be too hard on behaviours caused by joy."

OneIndia News