Iranian police have arrested at least two music producers connected to the California-based Iranian pop singer “Sasy” for producing music “contrary to culture,” Sasy’s management company confirmed on Thursday.
The arrests took place in the Iranian city of Shiraz shortly before Sasy debuted a music video for a song called “Tehran Tokyo” on March 10. Like the song, the video features Japanese cultural references such as a sumo wrestler, a sushi bar, and women in kimonos. It features American porn star Alexis Texas and other women dancing in tight-fitting dresses to the pop song, but no sexual content. All the women, save for Texas, appear on screen without hijab, or a hair covering. Texas wears a headscarf in one scene, but slowly removes it to reveal a tight dress. Women showing their hair in public is illegal in Iran.
The video has garnered 18 million views across social media platforms so far.
“Hours before the video went live late Wednesday, Iranian security forces detained two popular music arrangers who worked on the song in the southern city of Shiraz and raided their studio,” Sasy’s manager, Farshid Rafe Rafahi, told the Associated Press (AP).
The arrested music producers are brothers named Mohsen and Behrouz Manouchehri; they now face criminal prosecution for producing “Tehran Tokyo,” which Iranian authorities say violates the country’s public decency laws.
Iranian government authorities vowed to investigate a smartphone app that promoted a trailer for the “Tehran Tokyo” video last week, foreshadowing Wednesday’s crackdown on businesses and people connected to Sasy’s latest single.
Authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran have indicated that they will expand their probe to include entities “associated with publicizing or producing the clip” for Sasy, according to the AP, allowing them a wider range of options for criminal prosecution. Iranian news agencies reported this week that entities found to have “cooperated with Sasy” will face “decisive judicial action,” according to government officials. Iran’s state-run Fars news agency appeared to confirm an expanding criminal probe this week by accusing Sasy’s Iranian music producers of “running gambling websites” at his behest. Rafahi said the gambling accusations likely stemmed from a misunderstanding surrounding a poker website’s sponsorship of the “Tehran Tokyo” music video.
Sasy, whose full name is Sasan Heidari Yafteh, currently lives in California as a permanent U.S. resident. He reportedly fled the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2009 amid government persecution for his career as a successful underground rapper. Iranian authorities have pledged to pursue Sasy’s case “with international legal authorities,” according to the Fars news report this week.
The Iranian government tightly controls traditional media in the country such as newspapers and television. Tehran’s courts are increasingly interpreting the online social media landscape as a public space, allowing them to prosecute online personalities for violating public decency codes.
Iranian police arrested Alireza Japalaghy, an Iranian Instagram influencer, and his girlfriend last May for posting a video to social media of the couple kissing on a Tehran rooftop. Authorities accused Japalaghy and his girlfriend of committing “vulgar acts” in the video. Police in Tehran said the couple’s “unconventional moves, which were contrary to custom and Sharia [Islamic]” law led to their arrest.