</s>TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian authorities have arrested dozens of people in fresh crackdowns on models and associated colleagues posting "immoral images" online.

The official IRNA news agency reported Monday that officials in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, some 1250 kilometres, or 630 miles, south of the capital Tehran, arrested eight women and 36 other people in the photography, beauty salons and wedding businesses who used Instagram to share what they considered indecent images and clips.

Police said they were "damaging public virtue through the organized spreading of anti-cultural" activities.

Iran conducts regular similar crackdowns to combat western cultural influence which draws the ire of the Islamic Republic's hard-liners.</s>TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian authorities have arrested dozens of people in fresh crackdowns on models and associated colleagues posting “immoral images” online.

The official IRNA news agency reported Monday that officials in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, some 1250 kilometers, or 630 miles, south of the capital Tehran, arrested eight women and 36 other people in the photography, beauty salons and wedding businesses who used Instagram to share what they considered indecent images and clips.

Her name is Maeade Mahi. Recently she got arrested just because of uploading her dancing videos on her Instagram. If you are a woman in Iran and you dance or sing or show your hair then you are a criminal. If you want to enjoy your true self, you have to brake the laws every day. pic.twitter.com/0eIq5ld5x6

Police said they were “damaging public virtue through the organized spreading of anti-cultural” activities.

Iran conducts regular similar crackdowns to combat western cultural influence, which draws the ire of the Islamic Republic’s hard-liners.</s>
• 9-year-old Instagram star Lil Tay deleted everything from Instagram again.
• She left an Instagram story that says "Help me" and no one is sure what's going on.
• Earlier this year, people started asking whether she's receiving appropriate care and parental supervision — and fans are worried.

Lil Tay deleted everything from her Instagram page once again on Thursday. This time, she left an ominous message: "Help me."

An email address associated with the nine-year-old Instagram celebrity's management team didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.

Lil Tay's Instagram story seems to be a call for help. Lil Tay/Instagram

Lil Tay, an internet celebrity wih 2.7 million followers on Instagram, is known for her rapper-like swagger. Past videos show her cursing, trash-talking other internet celebrities, and boasting about buying expensive cars.

In the spring, a series of stories sought to answer several obvious questions raised by her celebrity status. Is her family caring for her? Where are her parents? Why is she hanging out with Jake Paul? Who's managing her career? Shouldn't she be in school?

Around that time, a person who claims to have edited Lil Tay's videos for YouTube and Instagram leaked a video of her brother apparently feeding her lines for the camera. A person close to the leaker told INSIDER that the video was published on Instagram after Lil Tay's management team cut them off from her inner circle.

"I am rebranding Lil Tay ... stay tuned," Diomi Cordero, a spokesperson for Lil Tay, told BuzzFeed News at the time.

Her latest disappearance and cry for help has fans worried.

Since her initial Instagram deletion in June, Lil Tay has surfaced only a few times, most prominently to pay tribute to her "father figure" XXXTentacion— a 20-year-old rapper who allegedly beat and strangled his pregnant girlfriend, and was shot and killed that month.</s>Like millions of other Iranians, 18-year-old Maedeh Hojabri shared photos and videos of herself on Instagram. She amassed a large following on the social media platform – the last one not to be blocked by Iran’s state censors.

In most countries, an attractive young woman such as Hojabri, who combines a strong camera presence with impressive dance moves, might have been picked for a television talent competition show.

Instead, Hojabri experienced a specifically Iranian form of reality TV – the forced confessions that are routinely shown on Iran’s state broadcaster. Hers aired last week.

Right now, the Iranian establishment is confronting a host of urgent issues: a collapsing currency; a continuing sanctions squeeze; a water shortage of epic proportions; and widespread protests over the state’s inability to solve these problems. So it seems all the more surprising that the judiciary and security apparatus should spend so much of their valuable time on a teenage dancer.

But sexuality – especially of the female variety – is this regime’s Achilles’ heel (and always has been). Controlling it has been an obsession since the Islamic republic came into power in 1979. And now the establishment is obviously losing that 40-year war of attrition.

Forced television confessions were originally designed to be deterrents, but in today’s Iran they’ve devolved into little more than official public justifications for the stupidity of the security apparatus.

Hojabri is just the latest in a long line of Iranians who have landed in prison for having the audacity to show themselves taking part in an activity – dancing – that nearly everyone in her country enjoys.

Anyone who’s ever been to an Iranian gathering knows that dancing is an integral part of any celebration. Frescos in palaces that predate the Islamic Republic (though not Iranian Islam) often depict scenes of dancing women.

Still, the regime has always tried – and always unsuccessfully – to stamp out the sensual and feminine parts of the national identity.

Although Iran ostensibly obeys the whims of one man, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there is no consensus among the ruling class on how to govern the country. One thing the establishment has agreed on so far, though, is the need for state-sponsored misogyny.

In truth, those in office have shown no sign that they are concerned with ending the country’s gender divide. That’s the weird thing about segregation. Once those imposing it have comfortably gotten used to controlling the levers of subjugating a group – be it a race, religion, tribe or, in this case, gender – they are rarely willing to let go.

And rather than distancing themselves from state media’s attempts to publicly humiliate a teenager while she is denied due process and the most basic means of defending herself, President Hassan Rouhani and his aides feebly protest they don’t control the judiciary, the state media or those who make these types of arrests.

Now, predictably, we’re seeing a rising public backlash against the heightened official chauvinism once again on display in Tehran. Countless supporters of Hojabri have posted videos of themselves dancing with the hashtag #dancingisnotacrime.

This follows months of women posting images of themselves in public without the compulsory hijab – a show of solidarity with the many women who have been imprisoned in recent months for defying the imposed dress code.

Both displays of defiance by the angry public are the paradoxical product of the Iranian revolution’s early and accidental empowerment of women.

Given the advances that Iranian women have made in the years since, their discontent will inevitably play a major role in the system’s undoing. It’s an open secret that everyone in that country knows, but few are willing to discuss.

The Islamic republic’s problems with its plans for gender apartheid started when it decided it would eradicate illiteracy. For men and women.

Then came Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq. Millions of Iranian men spent years in combat; some did not make it home. Many returned with limbs missing or with chronic illnesses resulting from exposure to chemical attacks. Others became drug addicts.

As a result, women began to assume new roles at home and in their communities. Although they had been part of the workforce before the revolution, incomes and opportunities lagged far behind what many were qualified to do.

Millions decided to stay in school and learn new skills, and in the relatively prosperous 1990s and early 2000s, many began to earn postgraduate degrees. But jobs were harder to find.

When I began visiting Iran in 2001, most of the people I spent time with were young women. They were the only people who could speak English. As I began to learn Farsi, I realized that even in their native language they had much more to say than their male compatriots. They read; some were knowledgeable about art and philosophy; and they were the earliest Internet users in the country. The result is a generation of women who work, read, have seen the world beyond Iran’s borders, and have expectations.

The strong and educated women of Iran long ago earned the right to express themselves however they wish. So – among other things – why not let them dance?</s>Why go to the expense and effort of getting a cosmetic face lift when you can achieve the same results with your hands?

That's a question answered by Australian models on Instagram who have been using the 'migraine post' of late to pull back their skin and smooth out wrinkles.

The trend was started by LA-based celebrity make-up artist Nam Vo who said women should try it the next time they take a photo by placing one hand on the temples, forehead or crown of the head.

She told Elle.com: 'I love it because the beauty of your hands frame the face and give it more structure. I always make my models pose this way. It's also a great way to show off your manicure.' The pose has the benefit of giving the model the same effect as an instant face lift.

However one must remember to arrange the hand with the lightest touch, rather than gripping the head or hair.

Influencers like Steph Claire Smith, Elle Morris, Jesinta Campbell and the Mathers sisters have all used the pose to take their photos to a new level.

However outraged migraine sufferers have slammed the term in a viral Twitter backlash, claiming it mocks those who suffer from the condition and posting their own versions of the 'True Migraine Pose'.

Leading the backlash against the fad, an angry sufferer wrote: 'There's nothing glamorous about migraine', sharing a photo of them mid attack.

Another tweeted: 'I want to know if you were battling a disease that is invisible to others but has ruined your life how you would feel if others were mocking it?'

Some even accused the term of 'disease shaming', writing: 'What's next...Cancer Pose? Parkinson's Pose? Diabetes Pose? Heart Disease Pose? Lupus Pose?

'Disease shaming millions of people whose lives have been shattered is WRONG!'

Others pointed out that it was Migraine Awareness Month, tweeting: 'It is Migraine Awareness Month. Please don't trivialize this illness that is devastating for so many of us.'

'Migraines are devastating; the stigma chronic migrainers face daily is devastating,' another added.

However others admitted that they weren't angry at the pose but pointed out that it wasn't something to be taken lightly.

Taking to Instagram following the backlash, make-up artist Nam Vo wrote: 'EDIT - Hi my Dewey Dumplings, my apologies. This wasn't meant to be offensive or hurt anyone's feelings. I am touched by the personal stories that you have all shared.

'I love all my Dumplings and want you all to be happy and healthy! Its all about the LOVE.'</s>Can we hope that Iran, now in turmoil over many things, will try to stabilize itself by allowing its women simple human decency? In the last few weeks, two women have been arrested for removing their headscarves (20 years in jail!) or for posting pictures on social media of themselves dancing. These are religious offenses, and are deemed such because they inspire the lust of men. (Women, of course bear full responsibility for whatever men do when engorged with uncontrollable lust.)

The first detainee, Shaparak Shajarizadeh (click on screenshot below) was apparently sentenced to two decades in stir for removing the hijab in protest of its compulsory wearing, and for “waving a white flag of peace in the street.” (White Wednesdays, in which women wear clothing of that color, are part of women’s protest against Iranian oppression.) Note that the story was not verified by Iranian authorities.

And here’s a story from the Guardian (click on screenshot, also see story in the July 9 New York Times) about a woman being arrested for posting an Instagram video (see below) of herself dancing.

This innocuous video was deemed dangerous enough to warrant the arrest of Maedeh Hojabri:

From the story about Hojabri New York Times, which described on July 9 the kind of public morality shaming that women like Hojabri are subjected to.

Like many teenage girls, Maedeh Hojabri liked to dance in her bedroom, record it and post clips to Instagram. But Ms. Hojabri lives in Iran, where women are not allowed to dance, at least not in public. The 19-year-old was quietly arrested in May and her page was taken down, leaving her 600,000 followers wondering where she had gone. The answer came last Tuesday on state television, when some of her fans recognized a blurred image of Ms. Hojabri on a show called “Wrong Path.”There she sobbingly admitted that dancing is a crime and that her family had been unaware she had videos of herself dancing in her bedroom to Western songs like “Bonbon,” by Era Istrefi. Whatever the authorities’ intent, the public shaming of Ms. Hojabri and the arrest of others who have not been identified have created a backlash in a society already seething over a bad economy, corruption and a lack of personal freedoms.]

But there are signs that not just Iranian women are supporting the freedom to dress without veiling and to dance in public, but Iranians in general. As the Times notes,

Last week the judiciary warned that Instagram, which has 24 million users in Iran, might be closed because of its “unwanted content.” Ms. Hojabri, and other internet celebrities like her are called “antlers” by hard-liners for the way they stand out on Instagram. But the public seems squarely on the side of Ms. Hojabri. “Really what is the result of broadcasting such confessions?” one Twitter user, Mohsen Bayatzanjani, wrote, using special software to gain access to Twitter, which is also banned in Iran. “What kind of audience would be satisfied? For whom would it serve as a lesson, seriously?”

Western feminists shy away from these kinds of violations, so that hijabis are often viewed as heroes though many of them are unwilling victims of Islamic morality. This represents the victory of skin pigmentation (Muslims are perceived as “oppressed brown people”, though many are lighter than I am and they’re hardly oppressed in places like Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia) over feminism. The hierarchy of oppression is clear—skin color > sex—but why Muslim women in their own countries are seen as immune to oppression, or ignored by Western feminists, defies rational analysis. You won’t find a post like this one on most of the feminist websites.

In the meantime, however, Iranian women themselves know what’s going on, and are dancing in public in support of Hojabri. I am saddened but also heartened by this video of Iranian women dancing. If you want a running account of oppression, including both men and women, just go to #Iran.</s>On July 04, a handful of designers and lifestyle journalists gathered at New Delhi’s hip Cafe Dori in the upmarket Dhan Mill Compound for a “fashion masterclass.” Their host was Sandeep Bhushan, director of Facebook for India and south Asia.

Bhushan was making a case for following fashion trends on Instagram, the social media giant’s video- and photo-sharing app. However, he didn’t have to do much, backed as he was by some of India’s most popular brands: Pero, Jaypore, Shantanu & Nikhil, Nicobar, and others.

“We love Instagram,” says Raul Rai, a former investment banker who co-founded Nicobar with his wife. “For us, it is a dynamic shop window that gives the versatility of products and also helps as a feedback loop.” The four-year-old brand’s Instagram handle, Nicojournal, has over 58,000 followers.

Instagram has emerged as an unconventional e-commerce channel across the world. Rai is certainly not the only one whose business has benefitted from Instagram, which has emerged as an unconventional e-commerce channel across the world.

Over the past few years, fashion designers and apparel makers in India—as in several other countries—have sought to use Instagram to market their products and attract new customers.

In 2012, Facebook spent $1 billion to acquire what was then just a photo sharing app. Over the years, however, Instagram has not only added a slew of features that attract more users but also become a marketing and selling platform for businesses.

Globally, and in India, fashion is the third most-followed topic among Instagram users (after movies and music), making marketers drool over the ready target audience for apparel, accessories, and other lifestyle-related products.

Noticing this potential, Facebook is now trying to promote the segment through events like the one in Delhi. Earlier this year, it hosted a similar masterclass in New York, attended by brands such as Birchbox and Madewell.

“Fashion is not just about the industry (at large) but also about small businesses,” an Instagram spokesperson told Quartz. “So, by doing (events like) this, we are also talking and reaching out to smaller communities.”

The platform, where Instagram has some 41 million monthly users in India, has already become an important means of marketing for several brands in India.

“In the last one-and-a-half years, for the fashion industry, the platform has been changing behaviour,” says Jaspreet Chandok, vice-president and head of fashion at IMG Reliance, which manages India’s flagship fashion event, the Lakme Fashion Week. “Fashion brands and designers are aligning themselves to an Instagram-only strategy. They are shooting only for Instagram.” Shilpa Sharma, co-founder of ethnic fashion brand Jaypore, says Instagram has become “indispensable” for her company. The app “enhances our ability to drive live traffic to our website and get people to transact,” she said while addressing the crowd at the Instagram event in Delhi. Most designers now actively plan their Instagram strategy by coordinating shoots, creating content and even posting behind-the-scenes stories from their collections. This season we worked closely with miniature artists from Udaipur, Rajasthan for developing a new surface ornamentation technique and tried hand painting on mulberry silk, where each flower is patiently hand-drawn and hand painted with fine brushes, resulting in unique one of a kind pieces. ❤️🐞 #springsummer18 #ladybugspotting #handmadewithlove #madeinindia #handpainting #bts

For sellers, Instagram offers a unique opportunity to reach consumers in a creative way. Nicobar, for instance, markets its brand by displaying a range of products through a series of stories.

Features like swipe to buy, stories, and multiple image sharing, have helped the creative heads of several other fashion labels offer better visual content to customers.

Unlike the typical e-commerce websites, the platform gives designers the opportunity to get creative in marketing their wares. For instance, Kolkata-based couture wear designer Sabyasachi “Instagram is the only social media platform that we actively engage in.” Mukherjee often shares stories of real brides, instead of models, dressed in his designs. He has more than 2.4 million followers on Instagram and oversees the brand’s Instagram strategy himself.

“Instagram is the only social media platform that we actively engage in,” he tells Quartz over email. “A lot of content is created especially for Instagram and the good ones will lead to honest, transparent communication with consumers.”

And it is not just the big brands.

India’s fashion market is currently estimated at $70 billion, of which up to $9 billion is already digitally influenced, as in, shoppers are browsing, searching, and buying stuff online. This is expected to touch $30 billion over the next few years, according to BCG-Facebook estimates, throwing up a massive opportunity for several boutique shops and mom-and-pop labels.

Many such homegrown companies are already trying to make the most of Instagram, without having to invest in a retail store, inventory, or expensive advertisements.

Around 30% to 40% of these young Indian designers’ business queries come through Instagram, Chandok estimates.

In addition, Instagram lets brands target young buyers. As of 2017, over 50% of its users in India were aged between 18 to 24 years. Over the last one or two years, it has seen huge interest from advertisers and brands as new users and shifting demographics make the medium hard to ignore, says Prashant Gopalakrishnan, head of client services at digital media firm Dentsu Webchutney. “There is a faster adoption from women on the platform.”

But Instagram still has a long way to go as it is much smaller compared to some other social networking platforms.

At 241 million users, Facebook is the largest social networking website in India, giving digital marketers a much wider reach. In addition, marketers are now also using messaging app WhatsApp—which has over 1.5 billion monthly active users in India—to reach buyers.

Scale apart, larger fashion brands reckon that Instagram will always need to be complemented with other marketing mediums such as print ads to reach out to a larger pool of audience.

“It is not a cheap platform for advertising,” Mukherjee says. “…it’s the right medium to reach out to consumers but we also work with magazine advertising because that helps to complete the picture.”</s>It was last year (2017) that singer Taylor Swift shocked all her fans by deleting all her posts from Instagram. However, it later turned out to be one of the promotional tactics used by the singer to promote her album Reputation. And now, it’s another singer who has joined the club. To our disappointment, it’s our favourite, Miley Cyrus who has cleansed her Instagram account. Yes, the singer recently wiped off all her Instagram posts, flipping all her stalkers!

We are yet to know the reason behind Miley’s Instagram detox. Just a day prior to this stunt of Miley, some of her followers had noticed that the number of her pictures on Instagram were dropping. The next day, she cleared her entire catalogue, including the pictures of her pets and fiancé-actor Liam Hemsworth.

The 25-year-old Wrecking Ball singer currently has 76.2 million followers on the social media platform and follows 620 people.

Although fans are still struggling to know the reason behind the sudden disappearance of the singer from the site, speculations are rife about the singer’s possible album launch soon. This could be another viral marketing campaign just like that of Taylor Swift.

However, a certain set of fans also assume that there might be some trouble in the paradise of Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth.

Well, we can only wait for Cyrus to unveil the mystery!</s>According to a video posted by model Joia Talbott, she was turned down by an unnamed casting company because "they told us they didn't want any more black models." She and some 15 other black models were reportedly told that "casting is closed," according to a Racked report.

"They told us they didn't want any more black models and that afros were a no-no," the model said in a video posted on Facebook July 13. "They were definitely not feeling my afro at all, so I didn't stand a chance, right? Wow. We're ready to go back to LA where we're appreciated and we book."

"Somebody tell Miami that there's no such thing as too much brown skin," added another model, Kacey Leggett, who goes by the alias Ka-Cey.

While neither model named the casting company that denied them, Talbott says the allegedly "closed" casting continued after women of color got out of the line.

Talbott posted several pictures of women who were turned down on her Instagram account.

​Fashion models have repeatedly complained about racial discrimination in the industry, Racked noted. Last year, a protest named "Black Models Matter" took place outside the Balenciaga company show during Paris Fashion Week. The company was reportedly targeted for using predominantly white models.

"I have heard from several agents, some of whom are black, that they have received mandate from Lanvin that they do not want to be presented with women of color," casting director James Scully wrote in an Instagram post at the time, according to Racked.

However, in the case of Miami Swim Week, the decision to turn down black ladies was apparently made by individual casting companies, as the 2017 show gallery by USA Today clearly shows models of various races and body shapes.
Iranian police arrest 46 people in fresh crackdowns on models and associated colleagues posting "immoral images" on Instagram.