Iranian Actress in Shock after Attack by Machete-Wielding Thief

Iranian actress Mona Farjad says she was treated in a hospital after a traumatic encounter with a machete-wielding thief, in yet another incident of growing insecurity in Iran.

Farjad took to Instagram on November 6 to describe the assault and share a picture of herself on a hospital bed with oxygen tubes in her nose. She did not say in which city the incident took place.

Farjad was standing with a friend outside a restaurant the previous night when a man armed with a machete and wearing a black hat and a mask suddenly appeared in front of her, she wrote.

The assailant swung the machete menacingly and Farjad and her friend fell to the ground “at least two meters away,” the actress continued.

"I won't forget the razor-sharp edge of the machete passing close to the artery of my friend's neck," she recounted, adding that the “sound of screams and shouts” forced the attacker to flee on a motorcycle ridden by an accomplice.

"Today, I experienced the true meaning of insecurity,” Farjad wrote.

According to Farjad, the street where the attack occurred is the scene of many robbery attacks each week. 

“Right at the place where we had this bitter experience last night, a man was attacked with a machete and his leg was injured,” she wrote.

The government’s failure to devise policies to address poverty facing millions of Iranians has contributed to the rise of criminality in Iran.

Last week, an actor, Amir Nouri, reported the theft of over 1.5 billion tomans ($30,000) from his property, and the wife of Kayhan Kalhor, a renowned Iranian musician and composer, said that some of their household items had been stolen.