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How a Nigerian Singer, Cameroonian Dancer Inspired Iran Protest

On International Women's Day (March 8, 2023), five teenage girls uploaded a social media a video of themselves performing the Calm Down Dance Challenge, writes Ananya Jahanara Kabir for The Conversation Africa. The video uses choreography for the first verse of the Afrobeats hit Calm Down by Nigerian singer Divine Ikubor, better known as Rema. The now-famous choreography was posted on TikTok by Cameroon-born, Montreal-based Loïc Ngumele Sipeyou, known professionally as Loïc Reyel.

The five girls were dancing in Iran where it is forbidden to dance in public, especially without the mandatory headscarves for women. By March 10, the 40-second video had gained enough notoriety for the dancers to be rounded up by authorities and made to apologise publicly.

The five girls are the latest in an escalating series of challenges to the Islamic Republic of Iran, rippling outwards from the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Amini was arrested for refusing to wear the headscarf in the prescribed manner.

𝐓𝐡𝐞_𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤_𝐎𝐮𝐭 / YouTube screenshot

On 8 March 2023, five teenage girls uploaded on social media a video of themselves performing the Calm Down Dance Challenge.

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