February 2, 2024
by Warren L. Nelson
A white-haired 70-year-old market stall mer-chant in Rasht has shaken the regime to its foundation for trying “bring some happiness” to shoppers by dancing and singing for them.
Sadeq Baqeri spends most of his time cleaning and selling fish fresh from the Caspian. But on the side he has contrived a dance routine with a running musical commentary, which he posted to his 128,000 followers on Instagram in late November.
For some reason, the police in Rasht were appalled by Baqeri’s humor. He was arrested in mid-December. His video posting was seized and replaced with a message reading: “This page was blocked and dealt with by our agents due to the production of criminal content and based on criminal examples contained in the Computer Crimes Act.”
Others reposted his video and the public far beyond Rasht quickly became aware of Baqeri, his dance, his music and his fate at the hands of the police.
Strong support for Baqeri emerged swiftly. The police quickly released him and even denied they had ever arrested him although earlier the Brig. Gen. Hossain Hassanpur, the deputy provincial police commander, had announced that 12 people had been arrested for dancing with Baqeri and joining in his video. He also said four shops had been closed in the bazaar for participating in Baqeri’s escapade. And he labeled the song and dance routine “an outrage against public decency.”
People all over Iran soon filled social media with videos showing them copying Baqeri’s song and dance routine (although rarely with the entertaining skill Baqeri displayed).
Baqeri’s footwork was captivating, if far from Broadway style. His sung couplets were backed by a dozen Rashtis who sang the simple chorus of “OH” Oh, oh, oh. OH! Oh, oh, oh.”
It was all tasteful and apolitical. But the Rasht police seemed to think that anything that was enjoyable had to be bad. Baqeri said he just wanted to “bring some happiness” to people who passed his stall in the Rasht bazaar. And the police found that to be unacceptable. The public around the country appeared to feel that what happened to Baqeri was emblematic of everything that was going wrong in the Islamic Republic. They saw the police action as a sign of intolerance, not enforcement of Islamic norms.
Maliheh, 53, a housewife, wrote, “Should people always cry and mourn. Why are people deprived of happiness? He has a cheerful vibe and exudes positive energy. What kind of threat is he? He’s not harmed anyone but only made people smile. Besides, he chose a good fish for me.”
The uniform public ridicule of the action against Baqeri soon forced the establishment to back down. Baqeri and the others were freed. Baqeri’s Instagram account was re-instated, along with his video; the account now boasts more than 1 million followers.
Baqeri, nicknamed “Booghi,” has long led chants of support for the local soccer team, Sepidrud, and is thus well-known in the Rasht community.
The support for Baqeri did not manifest itself in street protests and rallies, as has so often been true in past decades. Instead, the public took to social media, filling them with words of backing for Baqeri, ridicule for the authorities and videos imitating and repeating Baqeri’s routine, to emphasize their alliance with Baqeri.
Over the past year, public marches and rallies in the street have largely disappeared, partly as a result of vicious suppression by the security agencies, but also because people see that they can reach a larger audience and avoid violent regime backlash by resorting to social media rather than chanting in the streets.
Even members of the establishment are increasingly coming to view hardline stances on social issues as wacky and unsupportable. Fahikhtegan, a conservative daily newspaper, commented: “How have we managed to turn the dancing and singing of a fish peddler into an act of resistance?”
Mahad, 50, a physician in Rasht, said, “The regime has no common sense. It has become like an authoritarian father, unable to protect and guide his family and resorting to violence as the only way to feel relevant and powerful.”