An Iranian man recently deported from the United States described to Iran International grim scenes of neglect and mistreatment in US custody before being chained on a flight to Tehran where fellow detainees attempted suicide to resist return.
On September 28, the United States deported a planeload of Iranians to Tehran in one of the Trump era's most controversial migrant return flights yet, to a country with severe rights concerns with which it has no diplomatic ties.
The plane, carrying 120 Iranians including three women, landed in Iran on September 29, according to the deportee speaking on condition of anonymity.
Abolfazl Mehrabadi, the acting head of Iran’s interests section in Washington DC, told the deportees at the departure airport that almost 2,500 other Iranians were in US immigration custody and were expected to be returned to Iran on special flights, according to the deportee.
The figure is far higher than what an Iranian Foreign Ministry director general reported on Tuesday. Hossein Noushabadi said the US immigration authorities intended to return nearly 400 Iranians to Iran.
US federal sources told Fox News on June 28 this year that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers had detained 130 Iranian nationals in various parts of the country within one week.
According to the sources cited by Fox, with the new arrests the number of Iranian citizens in ICE detention facilities had reached 670 at that time.
The network, citing the US Department of Homeland Security, reported ICE had detained 11 Iranian nationals in eight states, one of whom was a former member of the Revolutionary Guards who, according to the officials, admitted to links with Hezbollah.
No asylum rights
The deported Iranian speaking to Iran International painted a grim picture of life inside US detention centers.
“The conditions were very harsh. For five months I requested treatment for a stomach problem but was ignored. Diabetic patients or those with mental health issues were not given proper medication or food."
"The most they gave was simple medicine such as Tylenol (acetaminophen) or ibuprofen. Even for severe colds they only gave one Mucinex pill.”
According to the deportee, the way detainees were transferred was also extremely harsh: “They chained us together with handcuffs and shackles, and we sat like that for hours without water or access to toilets. No attention was paid to our basic human needs.”
“Husbands and wives were separated, even children born in the US were taken from their parents. Many of us had not even appeared before an immigration court. My own case was in the appeals stage, but no attention was given.”
Refugee conventions
Ali Herischi, an immigration lawyer in Washington DC area, told Iran International: “At the beginning of Mr. Trump’s presidency, it was announced that the United States would no longer accept asylum applications at the border, which is against international refugee treaties."
"They should have been given the right to present their defense, a process that has now been completely eliminated.”
Herischi pointed out that lawsuits have been filed against this process, adding that although in some states such as Texas the order has been blocked, plaintiffs still have not been able to obtain a final ruling to completely stop the enforcement of Trump’s directive.
According to Herischi, asylum seekers are given only a 10-minute hearing in court, although if they say they would be tortured upon return to Iran they would not be deported there but to another country and have no right to appeal.
Herischi said some asylum seekers have been held in prison for months, including some who are Christian converts.
The Iranian citizen deported from the US expressed surprise at the unusual cooperation between Tehran and Washington in carrying out the deportation.
“Had the Iranian government not agreed to a charter flight, the US could not have forced us back. Normally, for those with travel documents, they bought regular airline tickets. But once the charter flight was arranged, even those who didn’t want to return were forced onto it.”
He said: “If there had been no charter flight, many of us could have resisted. But they dragged us in chains on the officers’ shoulders and forced us into the seats.”
'Shocking' scenes
The Iranian asylum seeker recalled “shocking” scenes before the flight: “One detainee, in order not to return to Iran, slit his wrist with a razor and swallowed dozens of pills."
"Officers carried him on a stretcher while he was convulsing. Another cut his hands, but they just bandaged him and forced him on the same flight back to Iran.”
The flight started in Alexandria, Louisiana, he added, then stopped in Puerto Rico and Egypt before finally landing at a military base in Qatar: “There, Qatari officers used electric stun guns and force to put us on the Iranian plane. They dragged those who resisted on the ground, cursing and shoving them onto the plane.”
Fear, then surprise in Iran
The Iranian deportee said all deportees on this flight returned to Iran with fear of how the Islamic Republic would treat them: “We thought we would be treated very badly, but contrary to expectations the behavior was respectful."
"The Revolutionary Guards intelligence handed us confidential interrogation forms to write the reasons for our stay in the US, then returned our documents and passports, and even arranged free taxis and bus tickets for those who had no money or family.”
He added: “This behavior shocked us at first. Many of us thought we would be arrested, but it did not happen.”
Herischi, however, said that in past cases, Tehran authorities “certainly” follow up eventually with deported asylum seekers.
Iran, along with the likes of Brazil and South Korea, has long prized surgically enhanced beauty standards especially in the form of rhinoplasty. But demand has now expanded to liposuction, tummy tucks and breast and buttock augmentations.
Women make up nearly 80 percent of patients, with operations estimated to number several hundred thousand each year.
One aspiring patient, Neda, 29, from Tehran, confessed to seeking to reshape her body under the influence of her partner. “My boyfriend keeps liking bloggers with huge butts and breasts, and I want to be what he likes,” she wrote.
“I’m terrified he will lose interest if I don’t change.”
Another, Sara, 31, also from Tehran, discussed the financial burden. “I’m paying in monthly installments. That’s the only way I can do this. I just want my body to look right in clothes.”
Interviewees spoke to Iran International on condition that their names not be revealed.
A theocracy for 46 years which has enforced Islamic veiling and loose clothing on women, the country has inched toward more laxity as a stringent new hijab and chastity law was paused this year out of concern it would stoke unrest.
'Can't look away'
Ladan, 27, described proudly how cosmetic operations reshaped her social life as much as her body. “With a Brazilian butt and big breasts, all eyes are on me at weekend gatherings,” she said. “Even married men can’t look away.”
Her story reflects how surgery is often pursued not in private but for public recognition.
This view is challenged by many women who point to the subtle but constant pressures of patriarchy behind these choices.
"A question I often hear here is women asking men, 'are you a boobs or butt guy?'” UK-based Iranian feminist Samaneh Savadi wrote on X. “Each time I’m surprised and wonder to myself whether these women are secretly hoping the answer will be, ‘Neither, personality matters more to me’.
"As American author Naomi Wolf has argued, a culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience.”
Image obsession
Instagram plays a central role in all of this.
Beauty bloggers and influencers, their photos sculpted by filters as much as surgery, set new expectations for how a body should look. For many, the pressure is relentless.
“It’s not just about beauty—it’s about staying relevant,” Sara explained. “You see the perfect pictures and wonder if anyone will notice you if you don’t look like that.”
Not all accounts are triumphant. Farnaz, 36, a mother of two, described the sacrifices behind her decision.
“After childbirth my breasts sagged and my stomach was loose. I feared my husband would lose interest. I sold my jewelry to pay for implants, lipo, and a butt lift. Now he is pleased, and my sex life mattered more than gold.”
Such experiences show how beauty operations are framed not only as self-improvement but as survival—of marriages, relationships or social standing.
While women make up the majority of patients, there is a surge in male clients seeking procedures once considered taboo.
Popular operations include hair transplants, liposuction, jawline contouring and even pectoral and ab sculpting.
Clinics advertise these services in the same breath as breast lifts or nose jobs, underscoring how beauty standards are increasingly marketed to men as well.
Beauty prices
Price lists explain the demand. Breast augmentations range from $850 to $1,700. Liposuction for one area costs $300–600, with full-body packages starting at $1,800. Brazilian butt lifts run between $500 and $1,500.
The contrast with global prices is stark. In the United States or the United Kingdom, such procedures often exceed $10,000. Iran’s bargain rates draw foreign clients, while locals depend on financing.
Clinics advertise repayment plans that spread costs across years, normalizing surgery as a consumer purchase.
'No magic'
But beneath the glossy ads lie dangers.
Qualified surgeons warn of unlicensed operators who flourish on social media, promising impossible results with manipulated images in “before and after” galleries.
With no central registry, complications are hidden, and patients often rely only on word of mouth.
“People believe surgery is magic,” a Tehran-based surgeon who spoke on condition of anonymity told Iran International. “But bodies are different, and there are limits. Some patients don’t want to hear that part.”
From boyfriends comparing them to bloggers to mothers pawning jewelry to preserve marriages, stories in clinics and forums highlight the personal sacrifices behind Iran’s cosmetic surgery boom.
In today’s Iran, beauty is pursued through loans and credit which buy beauty and lasting financial strain in equal measure.
Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh, a Kurdish political prisoner from Sanandaj in western Iran, was executed after more than 15 years in detention, the Mizan news agency reported. Hours earlier, the Hengaw human rights group said he had been transferred from Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, near Tehran, to solitary confinement for execution.
Mohammadi Khiyareh was first arrested in February 2010 and sentenced to death by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of moharebeh—“enmity against God.” The Supreme Court initially overturned the ruling, replacing it with a 15-year prison term for alleged membership in opposition groups. However, following pressure from security agencies, the court reinstated the death sentence after a retrial.
Six ethnic Arab prisoners executed in southern Iran
Mizan also reported the execution of six people in Khuzestan Province on security-related charges but withheld their names, a move that rights groups said makes the cases “secret executions.” The men had been convicted of “killing police officers, communicating with Israel, separatism, bombings, and armed attacks,” the judiciary said.
Without presenting evidence, the judiciary accused them of involvement in attacks on a gas station in Khorramshahr, bank assaults, grenade attacks on a military center, and shootings at mosques.
The Karun Human Rights Organization later identified the executed prisoners as Ali Majdam, Moein Khanfari, Salem Mousavi, Mohammadreza Moghaddam, Adnan Alboshokeh (Ghobeishavi), and Habib Dris.
According to Karun, the men were arrested between late 2018 and early 2019 and later sentenced to death by the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court for alleged membership in opposition groups.
The defendants’ confessions appeared to have been obtained under unclear circumstances, Hengaw and the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) both reported.
These six Arab political prisoners were accused of killing two Basij members in Abadan, a police officer, and a conscript soldier in Bandar Imam Khomeini.
Amnesty International had earlier warned of imminent executions, noting that the defendants were denied legal representation during the hearings.
Surge in executions
Rights groups reported a sharp rise in executions across Iran in September 2025. Hengaw said it documented at least 187 executions during the month, while Iran Human Rights put the figure at 171, the highest monthly count in two decades.
Only 10 of those executions—less than six percent—were officially announced, Iran Human Rights said. Most were related to drug or murder charges, while three were for moharebeh or espionage.
The group warned that the surge marks an unprecedented pace of executions in the past 30 years, recording more than 1,040 executions in the first nine months of 2025—double the number during the same period last year.
