Instagram models incarcerated in Iran

Iran has jailed 12 fashion bloggers and social media models for up to six years for spreading a "Western-style culture of nudity" designed to corrupt Muslims.

Lawyer Mahmoud Taravat says his clients - eight women and four men, none of which have been named - received a jail sentence between five months and six years on Monday in a Shiraz court.

Charges include "encouraging prostitution" and "promoting corruption" by publishing "obscene" images that spread a "western-style culture of nudity" designed to corrupt Muslims, according to Iranian news agency Ilna.

Some of Mr Taravat's clients have also been banned from travelling overseas or working in journalism, the civil service, fashion and photography for two years following their release from jail.

All of his clients have denied the charges and are planning on appealing their sentences.

Despite opening his nation up to increasing trade with the West, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been cracking down on violations to the country's strict laws on un-Islamic behaviour.

He has expressed his particular concern about the threat social media and the internet have on maintaining hard-line Islamic principles.

Eight members of a Tehran-based modelling network were arrested in May, with state television broadcasting the "confessions" of a model who said she posted images of herself on Instagram wearing certain clothes or endorsing specific beauty products to monetise her social media presence.

"This is a real battlefield. The clerics and seminary students should prepare to enter this field and fight against deviations and erroneous thoughts," Khamenei was quoted as saying at the time.