Iran cracks down on contentious pop music video with arrests

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian authorities have arrested multiple music producers connected to a California-based Iranian pop singer, his management company and Iranian media said Thursday, in Tehran’s latest effort to halt what it deems decadent Western behavior.

The arrests come as Iranian social media has been awash with criticism of popular underground Iranian singer, “Sasy,” or Sasan Heidari Yafteh's, new music video. Called “Tehran Tokyo,” the video features actresses, including an American porn star, gyrating in kimonos and short bodycon dresses atop cars and inside bars. The clip racked up 18 million views within a week.

Over the years, Sasy has become known for contentious lyrics that Iranian conservatives see as tainting the country's moral probity. In a previous song also featuring a porn actress, he instructed teenagers to take alcohol shots if they can't fall asleep and to scroll through Instagram instead of finishing their homework.

In Iran, where the government retains tight controls over traditional media like newspapers and television, authorities have used courts to patrol social media platforms beyond their reach. Hours before the video went live late Wednesday, Iranian security forces detained two popular music arrangers who worked on the video in the southern city of Shiraz and raided their studio, said Sasy’s manager, Farshid Rafe Rafahi, the CEO of Los Angeles-based EMH Productions. The brothers, Mohsen and Behrouz Manouchehri, now face prosecution by a criminal court in Tehran, he added.

A week ago, the song’s teaser, featuring the well-known porn performer Alexis Texas dancing to clubby Farsi pop, fueled such public consternation that authorities pledged to investigate the app that carried the video. Soon, Iran's guardians of conservative morals cracked down on...