Cartoon 92: “Happy” Youths Charged With Illicit Relations

The Iranian youths who produced the dance video “Happy in Tehran” set to the Pharrell Williams hit song “Happy” were put on trial0 in Tehran on September 9, 2014, where they were charged with “participation in producing a vulgar video clip” and conducting “illicit relations” with one another, an informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

On May 19, 2014, the six youths involved in the “Happy” video were detained and transferred to the Tehran Morality Police’s Vozara Complex, after the video, posted on YouTube, had gone viral. They were released two days later, after posting bails of between $10,000 to $16,000. Sassan Soleimani, the video’s director, was arrested on May 20, 2014, and held in detention for several days. He was released on May 29, 2014, on bail of approximately $16,000. This is cartoonist Touka Neyestani’s take on the story.