A young Iranian couple was arrested by police after a marriage proposal in public went viral on social media.
According to reports, police have said that the pair offended Islamic mores on public decency but were later released on bail. The video went viral on social media last Friday. In the video, it is seen that man stands inside a ring of flower petals shaped like a heart as his girlfriend stares at him and gasps with excitement in a mall in the central Iranian city of Arak. He proposes, and after the young woman says “yes”, he slips a ring on her finger to cheers from a crowd of onlookers.
Mostafa Norouzi, deputy police chief in Arak, told the Shahrvand daily that it is unacceptable for the young “to do whatever is common in other places of the world and disregard mores, culture and religion” in Iran. He further added “offence is very clear and there is no need for an explanation” about the reason for their arrest. Lawyer Isa Amini, head of the Tehran Bar Association, condemned the arrest, saying the couple did not commit any wrongdoing. According to reports, the Islamic Republic forbids gender mixing in public and this was the main reason for the couple to get arrested.
