US porn actor’s Iran visit triggers strong reactions from activists
- American porn actor Whitney Wright accused of being invited to Tehran to ‘promote the Islamic republic’
- Wright hit back at criticism, while an Iranian official said ‘it is not forbidden’ for Americans to visit Iran
An American porn actor on Monday faced accusations of promoting propaganda for Iran’s government after boasting on social media about a trip to the Islamic republic from where she posted pictures at sites including the shut-down US embassy.
The Iranian authorities have denied being behind the visit by Whitney Wright, saying she was issued a visa like any other foreign citizen and they had not been aware of her “obscene” profession.
The posts by Wright, who is known for her vehement criticism of Iran’s arch-enemy Israel, have particularly angered Iranian exiles as she showed herself carefully observing the strict Islamic dress code for women in the wake of the 2022 nationwide protests against the obligatory hijab.
Those protests erupted after the September 2022 police custody death of Mahsa Amini who was arrested for allegedly flouting the dress rules.
“American porn star Whitney Wright is in Iran, my birth country, where women are killed for simply showing their hair and being true to themselves,” prominent US-based Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad wrote on X, saying Wright had been “completely covered up” in the images.
“Iranian women don’t want to obey a discriminatory law,” she added.