Iranian Beauty Queen Stranded in Manila

"I don’t know what will happen to me. I don’t have access to a shower; the water in the airport is cold; and every day, the only food they give me is some rice with a strange sauce. But I won’t give up and I won’t go back.”

Bahareh Zarebahari shared her story with IranWire after being stranded in a room at Manila Airport in the Philippines, Fifteen days ago; she says authorities there are pressuring her to return to Iran. Security guards pulled Zarebahari’s hair, arms and legs and they tried to force her aboard a flight to Tehran; she says she told them she would not tolerate abuse.

The ordeal at Manila Airport comes after Zarebahari, who studies dentistry there and is set to graduate in a few months, had participated in the Miss Intercontinental beauty pageant during which she held up a poster of exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. The poster featured Iran’s old national flag – with the lion and sun symbols, linked to the deposed royal family – and which was altered after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

After the competition, Zarebahari left the Philippines on September 29, heading to Tunisia via Dubai to take part in another pageant. But when she passed through customs at the Tunisian airport, officials confiscated her passport and said she would be deported back to Iran. Interpol had issues a worldwide warrant for her arrest. But Reza Pahlavi himself intervened with Tunisian authorities – so Zarebahari was instead sent back to Dubai. She stayed in Dubai for two weeks before continuing to the Philippines – where she was taken into custody by the Immigration Bureau.

They told me I had committed a crime in Iran in 2018,” Zarebahari told IranWire,” but I haven’t been to Iran since I left in 2014.”  

Zarebahari recalled developing her first political opinions. “I grew up in a wealthy but traditional family. We were not political. My father was a landlord in Mashhad. We didn’t like Iran’s state television in my household – so my beliefs were partly shaped by the shows we watched on satellite tv.”

Zarebahari adds that women in Iran are oppressed on two fronts – by society and by their families.

“You should always be careful, as a woman, to not damage your family’s reputation,” Zarebahari said. “This pressure was killing me. And as the spree of acid attacks against women became worse, I felt insecure every time I left the house. Stones were sometimes thrown at my car if I was out driving. My family said it was because of my appearance – that I shouldn’t dye my hair or wear colorful clothing.” Zarebahari nevertheless endured her family’s religious conservatism until she graduated university – even going with them on pilgrimage to Mecca and Karbala.

But after she received her degree she established a private school for 300 students even as she pursued a master’s degree.

“I faced the same problems as director of my own school,” Zarebahari told IranWire. “My male colleagues assumed I was a slut for having a trendy fashion style. But I was not particularly radical in my taste – so it was hard for me to hear colleagues ask why I would attend meetings dressed in this way or why I don’t wear a full-body chador. I decided I had to leave the country.”

From the beginning of her arrival in the Philippines, Zarebahari faced many financial difficulties. She gave dance classes and played minor roles on tv to make ends meet; eventually, someone nominated her to compete in a Miss University pageant. The nomination opened new opportunities for her – and new problems.

Zarebahari was later asked to represent the Philippines at the the Miss Chinese Cosmos pageant. “I didn’t want to represent the Philippines,” she said, “I wanted to represent my own country, Iran. I decided to draw the Azadi Square, the symbol of Tehran, on a turquoise dress and to wear that for the pageant. And I could had difficulty securing the Chinese visa – usually the visa is granted only from within Iran.”

The pageant’s managers then told Zarebahari she may not be allowed on stage.

“I was crying so much backstage that the other girls said they also wouldn’t go on stage as an act of solidarity. Their efforts helped me to participate in the show,” Zarebahari said. “But then from that time, the Iranian consul in the Philippines, including its top official Mr Sadeghi,  From that moment, they started to call me from the Iranian Consular in the Philippines; even the ambassador himself, Mr. Sadeghi, asked me if I knew I was cooperating with the ‘enemies of Iran’. He even said I should go report my activities at the embassy.” Zarebahari says she never went to the embassy or spoke to its officials.

Iranian state tv reported that Zarebahari had asked Farah Pahlavi, the former wife of the exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, for financial aid.

“I have asked nobody for financial aid,” Zarebahari said. “If I had done, I’d announce it gladly and proudly and would thank her officially; but I provided for my travel costs and my participation in these competitions on my own.”

Zarebahari’s return to Manila after the Chinese competition brought a new set of problems. The university told her that Interpol had forwarded a letter from the Iranian embassy, claiming she had committed a crime; the university, however, insisted on seeing charges or evidence of a possible crime. The embassy’s efforts to deport Bahareh from the Philippines began then through fake lawsuits – requiring her to spend time and money defending herself in the Philippines court system.

The lawsuits were eventually dropped – and then Zarebahari tried to go to Tunisia. Iran’s embassy, through Interpol, now claims that a private plaintiff has brought charges against her for a crime allegedly committed in 2018; still, Interpol is unable to give details, and Zarebahari says she has not been in Iran for nearly six years.

“I have lived and studied in Manila for six years,” Zarebahari said. “I never expected to be treated like this, to be given some papers to sign and told I will be deported to Iran. The security guards tried to force me aboard the flight to Tehran, pulling my hair and my legs, so I sat on the ground and tried to resist. Aren’t you Christians? I asked them. The guards relented – even while their supervisor insisted they drag me on to the plane.”

Zarebahari says the scene was repeated again and again over several days – each time a flight was due to fly to Tehran. Officials even tried to force her to pay for each flight she refused to board.

“They handcuffed me to a chair,” she said, “and they confiscated my phone. They deleted apps, images, video clips taken during my time in the airport. But my followers on Instagram saw the video of what was happening and called the United Nations to see if they could help.

Iran Revival, an opposition organization in exile, has retained two lawyers to help Bahareh Zarebahari’s case. But for now she is still confined to a small room at the airport – grounded in Manila and in her life.