A foreign model who had traveled to Iran to undergo plastic surgery has been arrested, Tehran Prosecutor Mahmoud Jafari Dowlatabadi announced.
In a meeting last week with his deputies Dowlatabadi said the judiciary has opened a case and is investigating media reports abroad that foreign actors and models are travelling to Iran for the purposes of cosmetic surgery. He added that investigations have led to the arrest of a foreign model and discovery of alcoholic beverages at her place of residence.
Some media outlets have suggested that the detained model is possibly Pixee Fox, Swedish model known for undergoing extreme cosmetic surgery procedures.
Earlier reports had also suggested that porn star Candy Charms had travelled to Iran to receive plastic surgery.
Dowlatbadi said: “Undergoing cosmetic surgery is not a crime; however, entry of individuals who are active in the field of modelling and vulgar affairs is cause for investigation.”
He added that through interrogation of the detained individual it has been discovered that there are companies that bring individuals into the country and refer them to such centres.”
In a recent report government officials claimed a number of networks are active through hair salons and spas to lure and deceive young girls adding that they are intent on confronting these alleged organizations.
Meanwhile the prosecutor’s office also announced that a woman who had bared her chest near Tehran’s Milad Tower has been tried in absentia and sentenced to prison. “The court has found this woman guilty of inciting corruption and prostitution,” Dowlatabadi announced.
The woman referred to in the prosecutor’s statement is Moujan Mohammad Taher who made a protest film entitled “I am not a slave!” which was publicized last March. In the film, she bares her chest which bear the words I am not a slave! The Iranian director had said in an interview at the time of the release of the film that she had made the film in protest to anti-women laws in the Islamic Republic.
Mohammad Taher publicized her photographs and films after her exit from the country saying she had staged the first “naked” protest against the sexist laws of the Islamic Republic.
After the release of the film, Iranian security officials announced that they are going to enlist the assistance of Interpol for the arrest of Mohammad Taher.
Women are required to cover their hair and wear loose closing in public under Islamic Republic laws and many women and women’s rights groups have been challenging these laws through different channels and forums.