Iran jails twelve fashion workers for 'spreading Western-style nudity'

Twelve people involved in the fashion industry in Iran were sentenced on Monday to prison over "indecent" images posted online, local media reported.

Eight men and four women were convicted by a court in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz after they were found guilty of promoting corruption by posting "indecent images" online, spreading a "western-style culture of nudity" and promoting prostitution, their lawyer Mahmoud Taravat said.

They were given prison sentences ranging from five months to six years, semi-official ILNA news agency reported.

All twelve were also banned from working in the fashion industry and travelling abroad for two years after serving their sentences.

Taravat said that his clients denied the charges and intend to appeal.

Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran has required women to cover their hair in public.

Tehran police announced in April they had deployed 7,000 male and female officers for a new plainclothes division to enforce the government-mandated Islamic dress code.

Authorities launched a crackdown – dubbed operation "Spider II" – to go after fashion industry workers who promoted images of women without headscarves.

In May, eight Instagram models were arrested for posting images without headscarves. 

They were among 170 other fashion industry workers, including photographers and make-up artists, arrested over their role in online modelling.