Is Kim Kardashian a secret agent? Iranian officials think so

As Iran cracks down on fashion models posting photos on Instagram deemed as revealing, authorities have a fresh target in their sights: US reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

The cyber-crime unit of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards has long been tracking activities of its citizens in what they describe as a “foreign operation” to undermine the Islamic Republic’s morals.

“Secret supporters and operators of Instagram” have attempted to subvert the country’s “Islamic Iranian lifestyle,” anti-government news outlet IranWire quoted Gerdab, a pro-Guards news site, as saying.

The cyber-crime unit alleges that Kim Kardashian is in cahoots with Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom, to help make fashion modeling native to Iran.

“Kim Kardashian is a popular fashion model so Instagram’s CEO tells her, ‘make this native,’” the unit’s spokesman Mostafa Alizadeh said on Sunday, adding that the apparent western infiltration was being taken “very seriously.”

“There is no doubt that financial support is involved as well.”

Kim Krackdown

Kardashian, who is married to prominent hip-hop star Kanye West, has over 70 million followers on the popular photo-sharing network, where she regularly posts pictures of her glamorous, star-studded lifestyle.

The spokesman claimed that foreign powers - chiefly the “Persian Gulf and England” - were behind hundreds of Instagram pages showing scantily-clad models.

“They are targeting young people and women,” Alizadeh said.

A IranWire showed portrayed a giant Kim Kardashian causing panic in an Iranian street, knocking down a mosque minaret with her derriere as panicking Revolutionary Guards call for backup.

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The investigation into Kardashian’s Instagram activities come as Iranian police this week arrested eight people in a new crackdown targeting “un-Islamic acts” online such as female models posting images of themselves without their hair covered, state media reported Monday, part of a larger cultural struggle in the Islamic Republic over the country’s future.

The arrests follow the detentions of artists, poets, journalists and activists as moderate President Hassan Rouhani’s administration secured a landmark nuclear deal with world powers.

The arrests and harsh sentences handed down signal that hard-liners in the police and judiciary, who were unable to stop the accord and fear looser social norms will weaken the Islamic Republic, still hold significant power in the country.

(With the Associated Press)