Officials in Iran arrested 52 men and women at a mixed-gender “night party” in the northern city of Sari, acording to the state-run Fars news agency, affiliated to the regime’s IRGC.
Fars reported Saturday, August 24, that 29 of the detainees were men while the remaining 23 were women.
The news agency quoted a “source” as saying that the detainees were mostly young and that they had “extremely unsuitable appearances”.
The report said that 10 others were also detained last week in the city of Joibar. The hall where the party was taking place was also shut down.
Attacking and breaking up parties have been quite rife in Iran. Particularly in the past three years, after the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei warned against “social harms”, the state security forces have regularly intruded even family parties, including wedding and birthday parties.
In late January 2019, the police arrested 72 people at a private party also in Sari.
The city’s prosecutor, Hossein Alemi, accused the detainees of consuming alcohol and “violating Islamic morals” at a house where the owner had been allegedly convicted of crimes involving gambling.
In November 2018, the police arrested 50 men and women at a mixed-gender party in Maragheh, East Azerbaijan Province. They were also accused of drinking alcohol and not wearing proper attire in accordance with Iran’s Islamic laws.
