OPERATED BY CEJ

False

FACT-CHECKED

by CEJ |

Viral video of woman allegedly dancing in protest is not from Iran

Posts from users on social media platform X on June 17, 2025, shared a clip of a woman dancing in the rain, claiming she was an Iranian protesting against the government amid the country’s war with Israel. However, the video is old, unrelated to current events and the woman is not Iranian.

Claim

Viral video of Iranian woman dancing in protest against country’s regime

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a reverse image search to find the original source.

Posts from users on social media platform X on June 17, 2025, shared a clip of a woman dancing in the rain, claiming she was an Iranian protesting against the government amid the country’s war with Israel. However, the video is old, unrelated to current events and the woman is not Iranian.

Nearly 80 people, including top army officers, were killed while civilians were among over 300 wounded in Iran as a result of Israel’s strikes on military sites and private residences on June 13. Iran subsequently launched its own retaliation with ballistic missiles fired at Israel and the two countries continued to exchange a volley over the weekend. Tensions have escalated since with more than 224 Iranians killed and over 1000 injured, most of them civilians. Israel says 24 people have been killed, mostly civilians.

HOW IT STARTED

On June 17, an X user posted a 12-second clip of a woman dancing with joy in the rain.

The post was captioned: “An Iranian woman sends a message to the Islamic regime: ‘We will dance on your grave with all our hearts. We now have joy and hope for the future. The murderers of Iran’s children and women will fall. The Islamic regime will perish!’”

The video was viewed by 6.9 million users and re-shared 14,000 times.

The same claim was shared here, here, and here, racking up 248,000, 845,000 and 18,000 views, respectively.

Other shares with the same claim can also be found here, here, here, here, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.

Conducting a reverse image search led to a TikTok post by username @wildprincess9, posted on July 16, 2023, featuring the same video.

Other videos on the account, showing the same woman in the same outfit but in different locations, suggest they were all filmed on the same night.

Visiting the Instagram profile linked in the user’s TikTok bio revealed that the account belonged to a lifestyle blogger named Tamta Sabelashvili, who, according to her bio, is based in Strasbourg, France.

Captions for her Instagram posts were written in Georgian, thus suggesting that she is of Georgian nationality.

She addressed the controversy in an Instagram post dated June 19, saying: “Hello, I want to tell you about this video. I am Georgian and have no connection to the current situation in Iran and Israel. My request is that you do not use my video without my permission!”

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a viral videos shows an Iranian woman dancing in the rain protest against the country’s is false.

The video was originally posted by a Georgian lifestyle blogger in August 2023.

Evidence and References