TEHRAN: Four boys and two girls have been arrested in Iran for teaching “Western” dance moves including Zumba, a Colombian fitness routine, a local Revolutionary Guards commander said.
“The members of a network teaching and filming Western dances have been identified and arrested,” said Hamid Damghani, commander of the Guards in the town of Sharhoud in Iran’s northeastern Semnan province, according to Jamejam Online website late on Tuesday.
“The team attracted boys and girls, taught them Western dances and published their video clips on social media apps like Telegram and Instagram,” he added. “They were arrested by the Guards’ intelligence forces while teaching and creating video clips... as they sought to change lifestyles and promote a lack of hijab,” he said. They were charged with dancing and failing to wear proper clothing.
Women in Iran are banned from dancing in front of men outside their immediate families, but in recent years Zumba and other dances have been banned even in women-only gyms, even if the rules are widely flouted.
“The promotion and teaching of dancing in the name of sport in women’s gyms is a serious issue,” Damghani said. In 2014, seven young Iranians were arrested for dancing to Pharrell Williams’s hit “Happy” in a homemade video that went viral on the Internet. They were given suspended jail and lashing sentences.
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Iran arrests six for teaching Zumba
Iran arrests six for teaching Zumba
WHO says Dubai global emergency logistics hub ‘resuming operations’
- Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional chief, says more than 50 emergency supply requests across 25 countries are affected by the pause
- The hub stopped work this week after Iran launched waves of missile and drone attacks across the Gulf
GENEVA: The World Health Organization said its global health emergencies logistics hub in Dubai was resuming operations on Friday after a pause caused by the war in the Middle East.
“One of our most immediate concerns is the disruption of humanitarian health supply chains,” Hanan Balkhy, the UN health agency’s Eastern Mediterranean regional chief, told a press conference in Geneva.
“After a temporary pause, WHO’s Hub for Global Health Emergencies Logistics is today resuming operations,” she said, speaking from Cairo.
She said the UAE, in coordination with the UN’s World Food Programme, had confirmed that it stood ready to facilitate urgent humanitarian shipments.
“More than 50 emergency supply requests across 25 countries are currently affected,” said Balkhy.
“These pending requests — which will benefit more than 1.5 million people — include WHO supplies for Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Somalia, as well as polio laboratory supplies for global detection and eradication activities across a number of countries.”
She said the WHO would be working in the coming days to process urgent new shipments and clear priority backlogs.
Balkhy noted that even before the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, health systems in many countries were already operating at full capacity.
“WHO has pre-positioned trauma supplies and essential medicines at our warehouse in Tehran and is closely monitoring the situation — including potential mass casualty needs, disruptions to essential health services, and possible displacement,” she said.
“One of our most immediate concerns is the disruption of humanitarian health supply chains,” Hanan Balkhy, the UN health agency’s Eastern Mediterranean regional chief, told a press conference in Geneva.
“After a temporary pause, WHO’s Hub for Global Health Emergencies Logistics is today resuming operations,” she said, speaking from Cairo.
She said the UAE, in coordination with the UN’s World Food Programme, had confirmed that it stood ready to facilitate urgent humanitarian shipments.
“More than 50 emergency supply requests across 25 countries are currently affected,” said Balkhy.
“These pending requests — which will benefit more than 1.5 million people — include WHO supplies for Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Somalia, as well as polio laboratory supplies for global detection and eradication activities across a number of countries.”
She said the WHO would be working in the coming days to process urgent new shipments and clear priority backlogs.
Balkhy noted that even before the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, health systems in many countries were already operating at full capacity.
“WHO has pre-positioned trauma supplies and essential medicines at our warehouse in Tehran and is closely monitoring the situation — including potential mass casualty needs, disruptions to essential health services, and possible displacement,” she said.
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