Iran’s cyber police have cracked down on the nation’s Instagram stars arresting eight people for promoting “un-Islamic” standards.
According to reports Iran’s dreaded morality police – the Basij – have targeted nearly 200 people whose snaps they deemed to be too revealing – they included 59 photographers and make-up artists, 58 models and 51 fashion salon managers and designers, according to a statement from the court.
Eight of whom have been hauled before interrogators to answer questions about their pictures, including Elham Arab, who was probed about her wedding photos.
In them, Arab appears hijab-free and in a white, sleeveless dress – relatively conservative by western standards.
She was allegedly charged with ‘promoting Western promiscuity’ and will be forced to publicly atone for the ‘crime’.
Men were also targeted in the arrests and The BBC reports:
The arrests were announced by the court’s prosecutor Javad Babaei during a state television programme broadcast late on Sunday that focused on the “threats to morality and the foundation of family” posed by social media.
Mr Babaei claimed modelling agencies accounted for about 20 per cent of posts on Instagram from Iran and that they had been “making and spreading immoral and un-Islamic culture and promiscuity”.
Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 women in Iran have been required to cover their hair while in public but those regulations have relaxed in recent years with many women choosing not to wear hijabs.
This is not the first time Iran has set about punishing those who it deems have been behaving immorally on the internet.
In 2014 seven young Iranians were arrested for creating a dancing video response to Pharrell’s Happy. They were sentenced to jail time – ranging from six months to one year – and 91 lashes each.
