Pharrell speaks out after six young Iranians jailed for spreading 'happiness'
The six young people were interrogated and hauled away for remaking his hit video Happy.
US singer Pharrell has expressed disbelief after six young people in Iran were arrested by government authorities for creating their own video for his No. 1 song, Happy.
Happy in Tehran is one of few hundred video covers made by fans around the world and features them dancing in various locales just as in the original.
According to Mail Online, after the video hit YouTube and racked up close to 200,000 views with the help of Western news sites like the Huffington Post, the authorities hunted down its stars, interrogated them in footage seen across the country and jailed them.
Pharell tweeted after the incident:
The arrests came despite the three men and three women trying to set their video to private when they realised it had angered Islamic authorities.
Their interrogations showed the women veiled and angry officers asking questions. Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia said they "confessed to their criminal acts".
In the video, the three women were seen dancing exuberantly to the hit on Tehran rooftops, sans headress.
The video has since been taken down by the original owners but be found on The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/10845572/Irani...
Source: Mail Online
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