Well, this ought to teach those young Iranians to watch that happiness.  An Iranian court handed down suspended sentences of 91 lashes and six months in prison to six young people who made a viral video of themselves singing and dancing along to the Pharrell Williams song, “Happy”.

The sentences are suspended for three years.  That means the group has to stay out of trouble for that amount of time, or the sentences will be carried out.  A seventh codefendant was handed a suspended sentence of one year in jail and 91 lashes by the authorities earlier this week.

Iranian police detained the group in May after six of them were shown in the video lip-synching to Pharrell’s hit song “Happy”.  But the women were not wearing the traditional muslim head covering as mandated by the religious government after the 1979 revolution.  An influential cleric even issued a warning about it a few months before the friends made their video.

Iran’s somewhat moderate President Hassan Rouhani has not been a fan of the way the authorities treated the young people.

“The way to deal with cultural issues is cultural work, not policemen and (detention) vans and strong-arm tactics,” President Rouhani said earlier this month.