TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian police arrested 230 people in a raid on an underground rock concert close to Tehran, amid a growing crackdown on behavior deemed contrary to Islamic law, local officials said Saturday.
Large quantities of recording equipment, alcohol, bootleg CDs, revealing female clothing, and also drugs were seized at the concert in the city of Karaj, just west of the capital, in Tehran province.
"Two-hundred-and-thirty people were identified and arrested in a ‘rock party’ in the Mohammadshahr district of Karaj," said Ali Farhadi, the prosecutor for Karaj, according to the Web site of state broadcasting.
"An investigation is in progress and, soon, a verdict will be issued for the main elements of the satan-worshipping instigatators, and all these people will be punished."
He said that people from "Britain and Sweden" were among those arrested, without giving further details.
Rock groups in Iran are only allowed to perform with a license from the ministry of culture, although this has not prevented numbers of underground formations sprouting up in recent years.
Iran is currently in the midst of one of its tightest moral crackdowns in years, which has already seen thousands of women warned by police for dressing in ways deemed un-Islamic.
Women must cover their heads and all bodily contours in Iran, while the consumption of alcohol and mixed-gender parties are strictly illegal. Police have recently also been targeting men whose dress is deemed "satanic" or overly Westernized.
Over 110 of the particpants in the "rock party" have been transferred to the local Rajaieshahr prison, while the others are in custody at the judiciary after being allowed bail, Farhadi said.
He said that the young participants in the concert, mostly from well-off backgrounds, had responded to an invitation published on the Internet.
"Special cards had been distributed to the participants, so they could gain entry. Nobody could enter without such a permit."
The organizers had also brought along a consignment of skimpy female clothing, and were intending to subsequently "extort" the young participants by taking revealing footage of them at the party, he added.
