Woman who is "usually shy" dances in solidarity with Iranian teens detained for dancing in public

Women have been protesting since 2022 in Iran after the arrest of Mahsa Amini by the morality police, followed by her death in their custody. Recently, five Iranian teens who danced in a TikTok video without hijab were arrested and detained for 48 hours. A video shared by Reddit user, u/ahivarn, shows an elderly woman—who they said is "usually shy"—dancing to the same song "in support of Iranian girls."

The video starts with a text overlay that reads, "5 Iranian girls were hunted down and detained for two days for dancing to this song in public." The woman then begins to dance to the popular song, "Calm down" by Rema and Selena Gomez. She knows every move by heart and does it perfectly well.

The text overlay then reads: "They were later forced by the government to apologize. They are courageous for doing something that we take for granted." She goes on to share that although she has the freedom to dance in public, her fears have been holding her back. The video concludes with the line, "I admire their bravery."

The video went viral with more than 33,000 upvotes. Many people on Reddit loved the woman's dance and appreciated her for doing it. u/vestayekta commented, "This Iranian girl thanks you for your kind and gracious heart." u/Epicurus402 wrote, "I admire this woman for stepping out to show her support. She obviously understands what is at stake in Iran, and how precious our freedoms are here at home."

u/jellyfishnumerous785 expressed, "She's braver and a much better dancer than me!!! Keep [dancing]." Cherry_bomb_127 commented, "As an Iranian girl, thank you. It's nice seeing people still worry about us. I can see that some people think this is stupid and for clout or something but even if it's for clout, at least more people know what happened and are now aware, it makes it so we aren't forgotten. Hoping for the day, we shall be able to dance in the street without fear. Happy Nowruz everyone, may the new year be full of happiness."

However, some people thought that dance was not going to help with the situation in Iran. u/New2Memfiz commented, "The virtue signaling is insane lmao. This doesn't create any good. It creates the illusion that small gestures raise awareness and awareness is tangible, fungible good for victims. It's not. Making real change is hard — start an org, raise money, travel to Iran and dance at the very least. DO something to impact those negatively impacted." u/Itselchapo expressed, "How does this support Iranian girls? Excuse my ignorance." u/DonTeca35 pointed out, "I mean comparing their situation to your insecurities isn't appropriate or close to what they are actually feeling but the admiration for this woman getting out of her comfort zone is good I guess." 

Addressing such comments, u/atmic pointed out, "Awareness makes a difference. It lets people know about an issue, and they can decide to donate or take action -- but only if they know about it first. The argument around virtue signaling is noise -- regardless if raising awareness of an issue is actual change, it's still positive. There's no reason to put people down bringing attention to an issue, even if they have ulterior motives."