Several music producers who worked on Sasy’s recent music video “Tehran Tokyo” were arrested by Iranian security forces following a backlash to the controversial clip, the singer’s manager Farshid Rafe Rafahi confirmed to AP.
The producers, brothers Mohsen and Behrouz Manouchehri, worked for Sasy from the Iranian city of Shiraz.
Shortly before the full clip went online on Wednesday, their studio was raided and the men were detained, Rafahi confirmed.
They will now be tried in a criminal court in Tehran, with their charges reportedly related to producing content “contrary to culture."
According to the Fars news agency, the arrested pair were also accused of running gambling business on behalf of the singer, but Rafahi says this is not the case and that the poker websites which sponsor the clip have caused confusion.
What’s So Scandalous About the Music Video?
The clip features American porn star Alexis Texas stripping down to a sassy black dress while dancing alongside Sasy caused an outcry even before it was released on Radio Javan.
When the video’s teaser started circulating in Iran last week, after first being shared on the Rubika multimedia app, it was immediately dubbed “more dangerous than polio” and banned by the Iranian AudioVisual Media Regulatory Authority for violating children protection guidelines due to Texas' role.
Many people signalled their concerns about the impact the clip might have on young people, and said it might influence them to search for her "works" online.
Rubika is also under investigation for sharing the video from the “unauthorised” singer who left Iran in 2009 to live in sunny California and create music hits from there. He remains popular with Iranian youth, who often share his songs and videos through proxies and VPNs over a plethora of banned social media platforms in Iran, AP says.
When announcing the release of his clip, Sasy said that all he wanted to do was “give you happy moments.”
The singer’s manager, who is also the CEO of Los Angeles-based EMH Productions, said that the whole situation around Texas’ appearance in the clip “is pretty crazy."
“She’s just dancing like any person in any ordinary music video, she’s not doing anything inappropriate in these scenes,” Rafahi said. “Sasy’s mission isn’t to create havoc, it’s to make people happy.”
The “Tehran Tokyo” clip has so far ranked over one million views on YouTube and nearly three million plays on Radio Javan.
The musician has not publicly commented on the reported arrests of his colleagues.