Report: Iran detains members of 3 modeling networks

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has carried out its latest series of arrests targeting online modeling, part of the hard-line group’s efforts to confront what it sees as Western mores seeping into the Islamic Republic.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Saturday that the arrests took place in Iran’s central Markazi province. It did not elaborate on number of detainees, other than to say they had been handed over Iran’s judiciary.

While Instagram remains available in Iran, hard-liners have decried the online platform and others like it for allowing “un-Islamic acts” such as female models posting images of themselves with their hair loosely cover or bareheaded, in defiance of Iran’s mandatory hijab laws.

Many hard-liners view the country as fighting a cultural “soft war” against Westernization changing its mores.