2 girls and 4 boys arrested in Iran for teaching Zumba

A group of six people - two girls and four boys - has been arrested in Iran for teaching "Western" dance moves including Zumba, a Colombian fitness routine, according to reports.

Hamid Damghani, a local Revolutionary Guards commander in the town of Sharhoud in Iran's north-eastern Semnan province, told AFP: "The members of a network teaching and filming Western dances have been identified and arrested. The team attracted boys and girls, taught them Western dances and published their video clips on social media apps like Telegram and Instagram.

"They were arrested by the Guards' intelligence forces while teaching and creating video clips... as they sought to change lifestyles and promote a lack of hijab."

The group has been charged with dancing and failing to wear proper hijab, the Israel Times reported.

Damghani added that dancing as a sport "is a serious issue".

Mandatory wearing of the hijab has been an integral policy of the Islamic republic and it also bans dancing with the opposite sex, excluding if it's performed in front of the close family members.

The arrests came almost two months after Iran proposed a ban on Zumba dance classes, which angered many online, the BBC reported.

The ban was proposed by the Iran Sport for All Federation that wrote a letter to the country's Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to ban activities, including Zumba, for breaching "Islamic ideology".

It stated that the exercise included "rhythmic motions and dance and are unlawful in any shape and title".

However, it received a lot of backlash from the social media users. One Twitter user had joked: "The Oscar for the most Daeshi [so-called Islamic State group] news of the day goes to this..."

While another tweeted: "How many pillars does Islam have? One is at risk for the non-observance of hijab, another one over women watching sport matches in stadiums, the third for holding music concerts, the next for epilation and, the most recent one, for Zumba."