A 70-year-old man nicknamed “Booghy” was videographed dancing and singing in a small market in Rasht, starting a new trend on social media.

It’s been 43 years that the Islamic clerics have been trying to ban music, dancing, and singing from Iran’s culture, without success. The ban is frequently challenged by citizens, even though they are punished afterward. This new rebellion consists of dancing and singing around a crowd of men and women. Those activities are banned in public, especially between the two genders. This trend is “a way of protesting and demanding our freedom and happiness” said Mohammad Aghapour aka DJSonami. The DJ contributed to extending the trend by making a remix of the original song.

Dressed in white, Sadegh Bana Motejaded, known as Booghy, energetically danced around a group of men, encouraging others to shout the lyrics back at him and to dance around, filming themselves. On December 7th, local police informed that they had arrested 12 men appearing in the video, including Booghy. The police also deleted the videos and shut down all of their Instagram pages. Mr. Bana Motejaded’s Instagram profile picture was replaced by Iran’s Ministry of Justice’s logo and posted “ This page has been shut down for creating criminal content.”

A person close to Booghy who knew some details of his arrest mentioned to The New York Times that the dancers were beaten, blindfolded, and questioned for hours, they were also forced to sign an engagement that they would never sing or dance in public ever again. Mr. Bana Motejaded was also kept for a longer period and accused of complotting against the government.

Following the arrest, men and women all around Iran posted their anger and irritation on social media, claiming that the government wanted war with the citizens. To protest, people started filming themselves on DJSonami’s remix of the audio and replicating Booghy’s dance moves.