May I Have This Dance?

Présentation

Dressed in a long red dress with a small crown in her hair, Mojdeh dances in front of a red curtain to the cheers of a female audience in Tehran, Iran. Mojdeh is a young Iranian woman with a passion for dance. In 1958, the Iranian National Ballet Company was created and produced over 50 shows until the revolution. According to Islamic law, immorality and fornication result from sensual dancing, which is why in 1979 all dance facilities were disbanded and dancing was banned from the Iranian public. With the uprising in Iran in 2022 around "Women's Freedom of Life", the situation worsened still further and dance became a form of resistance to the Iranian demonstrations. These young women from Tehran's upper middle class are part of Iran's post-war generation, defending self-determination, freedom and equality.