Lying on an operating table in northern Tehran, Nazanine says she wants it all: a third nose job, her eyebrows tattooed and liposuction on her thighs to “fix” her figure.
The patient in her 40s “had two nose jobs with another doctor, but wasn’t happy and asked us to do it again,” says her doctor Javad Amirizad, the latest surgeon to take her under the knife.
In a conservative society where all women in public must wear at least a scarf over their hair and neck, such operations have boomed, with a nose job seen as a way to perfect their most visible asset.
Photo: AFP
However, the quest to look better goes much further: In two nearby rooms at Amirizad’s private clinic, women were having their breasts enlarged. Liposuction is another procedure on the rise and Iranian women — not just the wealthy in the capital — are also paying for less invasive cosmetic changes.
Botox injections in cheeks or foreheads to conceal wrinkles, collagen in lips to make them fuller, or eyebrow tattoos to replace painful plucking or threading — removing eyebrow hairs with a piece of string — are becoming common.
According to official figures, up to 40,000 cosmetic surgeries take place in Iran each year, says Amirizad, a member of the Iranian Association of Cosmetic and Plastic Surgeons. More than 60 percent are nose jobs.
However, he says the actual number is much higher as official statistics do not include operations by non-specialist surgeons who are cashing in on people’s desire to improve their looks.
In Iran’s largest cities it is easy to spot women — but also men — with bandages on their noses, flaunting the fact they recently went under the knife.
The trend has seen the Islamic Republic jump into the world’s top 10 countries performing plastic surgery. In 2013, it ranked fourth worldwide — after Brazil, Mexico and the US — for nose jobs, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reported.
The cost of a nose operation starts at around US$1,500 — more than five times the minimum Iranian monthly salary of US$270.
Mehrnaz Mehri, a 27-year-old manager at a food trading company in Tehran, says she paid closer to US$1,800, but considered it good value.
“I know some famous surgeons ask for up to US$6,000 for a simple nose job,” she says. “I never thought I’d have an operation, but when my mother and sister got their noses done, it was contagious.”
Television is playing a part is the cosmetic surgery craze.
Hugely popular South American and Turkish soap operas, beamed into homes via banned satellite dishes, show actresses looking beautiful after plastic surgery.
Such channels, watched by more than half of the population, broadcast round-the-clock advertisements for nose jobs, slimming creams and stomach-sucking corsets.
Patients also fly in for cosmetic procedures, Amirizad says.
“We get them from Iraq and Azerbaijan, but we mostly get Iranian women from abroad who know an operation is much cheaper in Iran than in the United States or other European countries,” he says.
And these days, plastic surgery is not just for women.
“Twenty years ago, about five percent of men wanted nose jobs,” the surgeon says. “Today it’s 35 percent.”
Mostafa Kashani, in his early 30s, is one of them.
“I broke my nose in an accident, and after I got married my wife insisted I get it fixed,” he says. “I refused, but then my sister had it done and it motivated me.”
Amirizad sees this as a sign of progress: “It shows our society is modernizing.”
However, some Iranians are saddened by what they see as a Western cultural trend that may be going too far.
Earlier this year, a Facebook page called “Iranian Women Up Close” asked followers to post pictures of their noses to push back against beauty being defined as a surgically enhanced concept.
Several hundred women did so under the heading “Pictures of My Natural Nose.”
Some women who have had surgery understand the debate.
Slomaz, 27, had wanted her nose redone since being a teenager and was just 20 the first time she went under the knife, but now says she would not do so again.
“Girls now all have the same type of nose — a very thin one with an upturned end like a doll,” she said.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
RSS