Philippines grants asylum to Iranian beauty queen who feared death if deported
- Bahareh Zare Bahari was denied entry to the Philippines upon her return from Dubai last month, with authorities citing an Iranian arrest warrant
- Rights groups had said she faced torture, ill-treatment and unfair trial if she was sent back to the country of her birth
Bahareh Zare Bahari, based in the Philippines since 2014, was denied entry into the Southeast Asian nation on October 17 when she returned from Dubai, with Philippine authorities citing an Iranian warrant for her arrest.
Iran marks 40 years since US embassy takeover with flag-burning rally
Philippine Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said that Bahari had been granted political asylum, adding that she was detained because Iran had asked Interpol for help in arresting and returning her on assault and battery charges.
Ahead of the asylum decision, rights group Amnesty International had urged the Philippines authorities not to deport Bahari, describing her as “a vocal critic of the Iranian authorities and a public opponent of forced veiling”.
“If the Philippines authorities send her to Iran she risks arrest, torture and other ill-treatment, and unfair trial and imprisonment,” Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty’s regional director for East and Southeast Asia said in a statement on Thursday.
In a video posted on her Facebook page two weeks ago, Bahari said she had lived in the Philippines since 2014, studied dentistry and also started a modelling and acting career.
She represented Iran at the Miss Intercontinental beauty pageant in Manila last year, and said Tehran wanted her deported because of her “political activity”.
Philippines opposition leader Robredo takes up Duterte’s ‘drugs tsar’ offer
Bahari’s Facebook page features a photo posted in August showing her wearing a dress resembling the Iranian flag used by the Shah of Iran’s regime, which was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In the photo, she is seen holding a spear with what appeared to be a photo of Reza Pahlavi, the toppled king’s son.
“My wish is that my country will reach to freedom and equality,” Zare Bahari said in her candidate profile at the Miss Intercontinental pageant website.
Bahari said Iranian authorities had given the Philippines a “fake report” about her, adding that she had been speaking out on social media to show the people of Iran “life without war, with freedom and peace and love”.