An Iranian court in Shiraz has sentenced 12 Iranian men and women who work in the fashion industry to between five months and up to six years in prison for “spreading prostitution” by posting images online.
According to Ilna News, attorney Mahmoud Taravat said his clients — who were not mentioned by name — are barred from working in fashion and that they are prohibited from leaving the Islamic Republic of Iran for two years after completing their jail sentences.
The charges also included promoting corruption through the publication of images, placing a negative influence on others, and spreading a “Western-style culture of nudity.”
Eight women and four men were arrested and sentenced. Among them is a man who was given a six-year sentence and banned from working in journalism or government service for two years following his release. Another man was handed down a two-year jail sentence and was banned from working in photography.
According to Ilna News, the 12 defendants have denied the allegations against them and are planning to appeal the charges.
Earlier, Breitbart News reported that Iran arrested eight people in a crackdown against women who “promote immoral and un-Islamic culture and promiscuity,” by appearing on Instagram without wearing the mandatory hijab head covering.
Iranian law requires that all women cover their hair in public and, while many Iranian youth wear western attire and drink alcohol in the confines of their own homes, their life in the streets of the Islamic Republic of Iran is starkly different.
The mandatory head scarf covering has slowly been worn more loosely by women over the past few years, prompting the regime to deploy thousands of undercover morality police to crack down on this behavior.
Iranian youth are a separate entity from the regime (referred to as Jomhouri-e-Islami) and the majority of them are secular. They are also very big fans of the west and enjoy the same fashions and technological advances those in Western Civilization do.
This past June, a senior Iranian cleric from Isfahan, Iran, said “immorality” among young Iranian women, stemming from dressing “improperly,” is resulting in climate change and causing the rivers and dams in Iran to run dry.
However, Nik Kowsar, a writer, cartoonist and geologist who understands Iran’s water system, attributed the decrease in the nation’s water supply to an increase in the population and less population control.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz.
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