Two Iranian women were detained after a video surfaced on social media showing them dancing in Tehran's Tajrish Square while dressed as a fictional character in Iranian folklore known as "Haji Firuz."
Haji Firuz is traditionally associated with the celebrations leading up to Norouz, the Persian New Year, marking the onset of spring on March 20.
Their performance was deemed by the authorities to be an act of "social defiance," leading to their arrest by order of the Tehran prosecutor for "committing acts of norm-breaking," according to reports by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
Tensions have been rising in Iran over public conduct by Iranians and the enforcement of dress codes, especially with women.
In a separate incident in Qom, a city known for its religious significance, a confrontation at a medical center escalated into a national controversy.
The furor was touched off when a video emerged on social media that showed a clergyman filming a woman who was not wearing the mandatory hijab as she held a child in the clinic.
The visibly shaken mother pleaded with the cleric for him to delete the unauthorized recording, but he insisted on continuing, saying she had to adhere to the hijab rule. The confrontation continues until the woman appears to begin having a nervous breakdown while the cleric is seen fleeing the scene with his camera.
This encounter prompted significant reaction on social media, with initial reports from pro-government channels claiming that the woman, along with clinic staff, faced arrest by the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. They also claimed the medical center was temporarily closed.
However, government and judicial authorities rejected the claims and said that no arrests had been made in connection with the incident.
The Qom prosecutor has since ordered an investigation to identify those responsible for disseminating the footage to the media.
The hijab, or Islamic head scarf, became compulsory for women and girls over the age of 9 in 1981, two years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The move triggered protests that were swiftly crushed by the new authorities.
Many women have flouted the rule over the years and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable clothing.
Since September 2022, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in police custody for an alleged head-scarf violation, thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets to demand more freedoms and women's rights, with the judiciary, backed by lawmakers, responding to the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution with a brutal crackdown.
Several thousand people have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.
At least nine protesters have been executed after what rights groups and several Western governments have called "sham" trials.