New wave of blocking Instagram influencers due to hijab
In recent days, actions against popular female figures on Instagram over the hijab have intensified, and dozens of accounts have been blocked by Iran’s public security police, FARAJA, with a similar post.
Among the figures whose Instagram pages were blocked by a post from FARAJA police last week, halting their activities, are Pardis Fatemi, a model and blogger with 640,000 followers, Sougoul Rahbar, a fitness trainer with 300,000 followers, Naghmeh Jafari, Gisou Diba, a hairdresser with over one million followers, Negar Farahmand, a model and blogger with 355,000 followers, Kimia Hosseini, a model and blogger with over 630,000 followers, and Ghazal Mahani, a runner with over 110,000 followers.
Instagram accounts of another group of figures who have several hundred thousand to millions of followers are also inaccessible. This means that searching for their usernames does not lead to their Instagram accounts. It is unclear whether this group themselves deactivated their accounts under pressure or fear of police action, or if this was done by the Iranian police. In Iran, as in many other countries, high-follower users use Instagram for advertising and income generation.
Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the head of Iran’s judiciary, said yesterday, October 30, that prosecutors and competent judicial authorities should demand the implementation of the law in addressing social anomalies from FARAJA, and FARAJA and the Ministry of Interior should step into this arena. They should not wait for the approval of the bill related to chastity and hijab.
Earlier, on October 25, the police commander of Mazandaran announced the operational plan of the cyber police in dealing with promoters of improper hijab in cyberspace and said that 302 individuals, whom he described as promoters of improper hijab, have been identified. He accused these users of promoting and spreading immorality through indecent modeling, revealing clothing, and unethical live streams, an accusation that carries severe punishment under Islamic Penal Code.
Recently, in Bandar Abbas, an Instagram page related to beauty was also shut down simultaneously with the sealing of 10 women’s beauty salons for what was announced as unconventional advertising in cyberspace, disruptive imagery, and public disturbance.