WEB CHUTNEY

Models in Iran have been arrested and forced to grovel in public for posting glamorous pictures of themselves online without wearing the compulsory headscarf.

Police have arrested eight models in a new crackdown targeting ‘un-Islamic acts’ such as women exposing their hair. Among them was , a model known for her distinctive blonde hair and wedding dress portraits, who was made to issue a public apology in footage broadcast on state television.

Iranian Model, Elham Arab, answering to Tehran attorney for posting her pictures without scarf on Instagram pic.twitter.com/y1CSM4FrYQ

— potkin azarmehr (@potkazar) May 16, 2024

Her Instagram page has been shut down, along with those belonging to the seven other arrested women, along with Facebook pages and business websites.

Melikaa Zamani, Niloofar Behboudi, Donya Moghadam, Dana Nik, Shabnam Molavi, Elnaz Golrokh and Hamid Fadaei were named as those detained, although authorities did not confirm the names and at least two of the women are believed to have fled Iran.

#loving this #outfit

The arrests were made in a sting operation code-named Spider-2 which particularly targeted users of the picture-sharing site Instagram.