Iran bans Zumba, deems its videos pornography

TEHRAN, Iran (Kurdistan24) - Iran's Sports for All Federation issued a statement forbidding “Zumba and any harmonious movement or body-shaking instruction” in public or private settings, claiming they “contravene Islamic ideology.”

After lengthy debates, the theologists decided that Zumba is more "pleasure seeking" than exercise and is therefore "haram."

The head of the Sports for All Federation, Ali Majd Ara, said in a letter that Zumba wasn’t one of the accepted sports, claiming that making “rhythmic movements” or “dancing” is illegal.

“Considering that activities such as Zumba, performance of rhythmic movements and dancing in any form and under any title lacks legal credibility, I request that you issue an order to ban such movements,” Mr. Ara wrote in a letter to a provincial official, which was published by the semiofficial Islamic Students News Agency.

The letter amounted to the nation-wide ban of this Columbia-originated group fitness.

Concerned about men who watch videos of Zumba and may astray from the virtuous path, Zumba videos have been banned as pornography, Slate reported.

Iran is not the only country taking issues with the "problematic sexiness" of this exercise.

In 2013, a rabbinical judge in the Israeli community of Betar Ilit banned Zumba because “in form and manner, the activity is totally at odds with both the ways of the Torah and the holiness of Israel, as are the songs associated to it.” 

For a lot of Iranians, the ban means that popular but proscribed activities, including Zumba dancing, now should take place in semi-hidden locations or under a different name.