Iran approves American porn star’s visa for Tehran visit despite crackdown on hijabs
IRANIAN women have criticised the Tehran government after it granted a tourist visa to a pro-palestinian American porn star despite its brutal hijab crackdown.
Oklahoma-born Whitney Wright shared snippets of her trip to Tehran on social media despite her work in pornography exposing her in theory to charges that carry the death penalty.
Her visit amid the imprisonment of Narges Mohammadi, the Nobel
Peace Prize laureate and women’s rights activist, prompted criticism of the country’s attitude towards women. As an American citizen, Ms Wright would need a visa to visit Iran. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to questions about the porn star’s trip. Nasser Kanaani, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, was asked about Ms Wright during a briefing and said he had no information about her.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted an anonymous official claiming that the government issued Ms Wright a visa while not being “aware about the nature of her immoral job”.
Setareh Pesiani, an actress, used Ms Wright’s visit as an opportunity to criticise Iran’s hardline government for its mandatory headscarf policy, which led to the arrest of Mahsa Amini, 22, and her death in police custody.
“You punish people of this country for removal of hijab but you allow a porn actress to come here for tourism!?” Ms Pesiani wrote on Instagram.
Masih Alinejad, a Us-based activist who has faced assassination and kidnapping attempts by Iran, also denounced Ms Wright’s visit.
The porn star visited the former US embassy in Tehran, which was abandoned after the 1979 hostage crisis. Ms Wright has previously shared pro-palestinian information online.
She did not respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press.