Kim Kardashian. Whether you love her or hate her, it's almost certain that you know who she is, if not what it is that she actually does. Other than take her clothes off at regular intervals, spend her life surrounded by cameras and hang around with the notoriously publicity-shy Kanye West.
But while most of us can just dismiss her as a pointless irrelevance and get on with our daily lives, it seems one country is taking her very seriously indeed.
A new report from Iran Wire suggests that the Middle Eastern country views her as a serious threat, and even part of a secret plan by Instagram to "target young people and women" in Iran, to convince them to live a life at odds with Islam.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards website Gerdab explains how there are “secret supporters and operators of Instagram” who are attempting to subvert the “Islamic Iranian lifestyle,”, before proudly explaining its achievements in combating “modeling and vulgarity”.
It explains: "We had 170 individuals who were active in modeling, fashion houses and photography workshops. Of this number, 29 will be prosecuted. Our aim is to teach them a lesson and make them wake up. In many cases, a warning was sufficient and we did not take legal action. Of the 29 individuals, eight have been arrested and their cases are being processed.”
The Guards have a database of 300 Instagram pages and 350 Facebook pages that are under watch.
Iran Wire writes that "The aim of Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom... is to make fashion modeling native to Iran", with spokesman Mostafa Alizadeh explaining on an Iranian news program: “Ms. Kim Kardashian is a popular fashion model so Instagram’s CEO tells her, ‘Make this native.’ There is no doubt that financial support is involved as well. We are taking this very seriously.”
Kardashian's paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Armenia, bordering Iran, which probably doesn't help matters.
They believe it's part of an overall campaign “promoting a culture of promiscuity, weakening and rejecting the institution of family, ridiculing religious values and beliefs, promoting relationships outside moral rules, and publishing the private pictures of young women.”
Yeah, she kinda does do quite a bit of that stuff. Maybe they've got a point?
(Image: Rex)
