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8 models in Iran have been arrested and forced to grovel in public by the country’s morality Police, for posting glamorous pictures of themselves online without covering their heads with headscarves. Stating that such ‘un-Islamic acts’ as women exposing their hair in public was unacceptable.
Popular Arab model, Elham Arab, known for her wedding-dress portraits, was interrogated on camera at the Iranian Revolutionary Court with her blonde hair hidden under a black chador.
She was charged with ‘promoting western promiscuity’ and forced to give public ‘self-criticism.’ ‘All people love beauty and fame,’ Arab said. ‘They would like to be seen, but it is important to know what price they will pay to be seen.’
The arrests were made in a sting operation code-named Spider-2 which specifically targeted Instagram users.
The sting identified 170 people using Instagram pages – 59 photographers and makeup artists, 58 models, 51 fashion salon managers and designers, and two active institutions.
The head of the sting operation Javad Babaei said on state television on Sunday:
‘We found out that about 20 per cent of the (Iranian) Instagram feed is run by the modelling circle,’ They have been ‘making and spreading immoral and un-Islamic culture and promiscuity’.
Babaei said it was the role of the judiciary to ‘confront those who committed these crimes in an organised manner’.
In addition to the eight arrests, criminal cases have been opened against 21 other people, he said. The sting operation has homed in on a database of over 300 popular Iranian Instagram accounts and connected accounts.
Hamid Fadaei pictured above was also arrested and charged with criminal intent.