When Oprah Winfrey interviewed Pharrell Williams and showed him a YouTube clip of people around the world dancing to his hit single "Happy" he broke down in tears.
But Pharrell would have been crying for a different reason upon hearing news that a group of Iranian youth were arrested for appearing in an Iranian online version of his song. The singer posted the following to his Facebook page yesterday: "It is beyond sad that these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness," he wrote with a link to an article on the arrests.
However, it appears there is a happy ending.
The Guardian reports the Iranian state-run broadcaster May 20 aired a program showing fans of the musician from Tehran involved in making a video clip for "Happy."
It's unclear if the fans placed in jail had access to legal representation before they were shown on television. Hossein Sajedinia, the city's police chief, said six were detained in connection with "an obnoxious" video released through social media sites. "We launched a police investigation in cooperation with the judicial authorities and identified and arrested the accused within six hours," the police chief told the Isna news agency. He also said the six who were arrested admitted to what Sajedinia claimed to be wrongdoing.
The six arrested claim the program conned them into being recorded on video with the impression being the video wouldn't air online. "They had promised us not to publish the video," a young female said on the show. On television Sajedinia said police would be vigilant in tracking down those found to be acting out against societal norms in Iran.
The incident also casued Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to tweet earlier today (May 21) regarding the arrest and show his support for the six youth:
However, earlier today it appeared that the six were released from custody with the video director still in custody, according to a news report by BBC Persia and some related tweets:
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