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Nose job boom in Iran where procedure can boost social status

Nose job boom in Iran where procedure can boost social status

Yahoo08-04-2025

All of the women in Iranian model Azadeh's family have had nose surgeries, each feeling the pressure to conform with Western beauty standards in a country where female bodies are heavily policed.
To Azadeh, smoothing out the bump in what Iranians would call the "Persian nose" she was born with proved a lucrative investment.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iranian women have been required to dress modestly and cover their hair, and the beauty industry has become almost entirely centred on the face.
Having rhinoplasty -- a nose job -- can make a major difference, Azadeh told AFP.
"After the operation, not only have I earned myself a modelling job with better social standing but I'm also earning three times more and I'm more respected by clients," she said.
Azadeh, 29, asked that her surname be withheld because women models can face social pressure in Iran.
According to the US-based International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), more than 264,000 cosmetic operations were performed in Iran in 2023, with rhinoplasty being the most common.
- A cultural trend -
Across Tehran and other Iranian cities, brightly coloured billboards advertise beauty clinics and cosmetic procedures, offering promises of sculpted noses, flawless skin and perfect teeth.
Many people with bandaged noses can be seen on the streets, a testament to the popularity of rhinoplasty.
"It has become more of a cultural trend," said rhinoplasty surgeon Hamidreza Hosnani who performs up to 20 operations a week at his well-equipped clinic in the capital.
And that trend has evolved, becoming more and more tied to social identity and status, especially as more women have defied the strict dress code.
Such defiance became more marked following the mass protests sparked by the 2022 death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini.
In Iran, where the minimum wage is around $100, basic rhinoplasty costs up to $1,000 -- significantly cheaper than in other countries, Hosnani said.
Millions of Iranians have long struggled with soaring prices and a plunging currency, driven in part by years of international sanctions.
"I even had to borrow the money required for the operation from my friends and family, but the money was well spent, and it was completely worth it," Azadeh said.
Reyhaneh Khoshhali, a 28-year-old surgical assistant, had the operation four years ago, and regrets not having it sooner.
"My nose really did not look good aesthetically and I wanted to be more beautiful," she said.
"If I could go back, I would have had the operation earlier."
- Unauthorised clinics -
For years, Iran has hosted highly advanced medical centres, even becoming a destination for foreigners seeking high-quality and affordable cosmetic surgery.
However, the procedures can also come with risks.
The Iranian authorities have repeatedly warned about the growing number of unauthorised clinics performing cosmetic procedures.
In February, a dozen unlicenced practitioners were arrested and several operating theatres in Tehran's Apadana Hospital were closed because of unauthorised cosmetic procedures, the health ministry said.
In 2023, three women died in a single day -- November 7 -- during cosmetic surgery in three separate incidents in Tehran, media reported at the time.
Ava Goli has yet to undergo her rhinoplasty operation, and said that finding a reliable doctor involved some research.
"I saw some people whose nose job did not look good... and yeah, it really made me scared at times," the 23-year-old told AFP.
Yet the demand for cosmetic surgery in Iran remains high -- and the pressure to keep up is not limited to women.
Bahador Sayyadi, a 33-year-old accountant, said he had to borrow money so he could have a hair transplant.
"My financial situation isn't great, but thanks to a loan I got recently, I will be doing the procedure just in time before my wedding," he said.
"Men should also take care of themselves these days, just like women."
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How Culture Shapes Our View of Wellbutrin for Anxiety
How Culture Shapes Our View of Wellbutrin for Anxiety

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How Culture Shapes Our View of Wellbutrin for Anxiety

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Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About Your Mitochondria
Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About Your Mitochondria

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time7 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About Your Mitochondria

The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s warning about mitochondria slipped in between the anti-vaccine junk science and the excoriation of pharmaceutical drugs as 'the No. 3 killer in our country.' He was speaking in 2023 to Joe Rogan, elaborating on the dangers of Wi-Fi—which no high-quality scientific evidence has shown to harm anyone's health—and arguing that it causes disease by somehow opening the blood-brain barrier, and by degrading victims' mitochondria. The mention of mitochondria—the tiny structures that generate energy within our cells—was brief. Two years later, mitochondrial health is poised to become a pillar of the MAHA movement, already showing up in marketing for supplements and on podcasts across the 'manosphere.' 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Archaeologists Found a 6,200-Year-Old Skull. Then They Noticed Something Very Wrong.
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Archaeologists Found a 6,200-Year-Old Skull. Then They Noticed Something Very Wrong.

Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The burial site Chega Sofla has many skeletons with elongated skulls, likely from a practice called cranial bandaging where people use wrapped fabric to permanently reshape the skull in infancy and early childhood. Researchers discovered one skeleton with a cone-shaped skull that died from blunt force trauma. The study used CT scans to analyze the thickness of the elongated skull and determine whether the severity of the injuries could be attributed to the cranial bandaging. Much to your grandma's dismay, your tattoos and piercings are types of body modifications, or procedures that deliberately alter the human body. Humans have experimented with these alterations for much of our existence. And while your 'sick ink' may be widely accepted in the Western world, other cultures have body modification rituals that are much more extreme by our standards. Cranial bandaging is the practice of wrapping strips of fabric around a child's growing skull to permanently modify the shape. When performed over several years, cranial bandaging results in an elongated, cone-shaped head. Many skeletons with these modified skulls have been found at Chega Sofla, a site in western Iran that dates all the way back to 4,700 B.C. The site features dozens of graves that range in size from single burials to entire family tombs. Researchers for the Zohreh Prehistoric Project have studied the area for more than a decade, and they recently discovered the remains of a woman with an elongated skull that was inexplicably bashed in. Published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology on May 22, the researchers' new study details the traumatic head injury that killed the woman about 6,200 years ago. 'We know this woman experienced the fracture in the final moments of her life,' lead author of the study Mahdi Alirezazadeh told Live Science, 'but we don't have any direct evidence to say that someone intentionally struck her.' Alirezazadeh and the other researcher on the study, Hamed Vahdati Nasab, used CT scans to get a closer look at the woman's (referred to as BG1.12 in the study) skull. They focused on the thickness of her cranial bones and something called the diploë, or the spongy bone tissue found between the external and internal calvaria layers (think of diploë as the insulation in the walls of the skull). Researchers found that BG1.12's bones and their diploë were much thinner than that of a typical skull, although they noted that this is to be expected with cranial alterations. They explain that because of the thinness, the skull was likely much less effective at protecting the brain from external forces—like a blunt-force blow—than a normal skull would be. The triangular fracture on BG1.12's skull runs from the front to the left side of her head. According to the study, 'an intense force delivered by an object with a wide edge impacted the skull of this young woman during her final moments.' Alirezazadeh explains that they can't necessarily attribute the woman's death to her modified skull because the trauma was so severe. He also noted that another fractured skull was found at the site, except it was unmodified. 'It should be noted that the blow was so severe that it would have fractured a normal, unmodified skull as well,' the researcher told Live Science. 'So we cannot attribute cranial fractures solely to modified skulls,' he later continued. At Chega Sofla, people with and without cranial modifications are buried together, so the woman's skeleton has yet to be identified. Researchers are also still uncertain whether the woman sustained her injuries accidentally—or if she was murdered. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?

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