Is Kim Kardashian a secret agent? Iran’s Revolutionary Guard thinks so

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has accused reality TV star Kim Kardashian of working with Instagram to corrupt Iranian women.

According to reports in Iranian media, Kardashian (35) who is married to rapper Kanye West and probably best known for her barely clad antics on social media, has been recruited by Instagram to “make this native” and attract followers in Iran.

Her father, Robert Kardashian, emigrated to America from Armenia, and Kardashian has always flaunted her Armenian roots, visiting the region to commemorate the 1915 Armenian Genocide last year. Armenia borders Iran and the country is still home to a small Armenian minority.

On Sunday, Mostafa Alizadeh, a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard’s organised cyberspace crimes unit, said that Kardashian was “targeting young people and women”.

“Foreigners are behind it because it is targeting families,” he said. “These schemes originate from around the Persian Gulf and England. When you draw the operational graph, you will see that it is a foreign operation.”

“Ms. Kim Kardashian is a popular fashion model so Instagram’s CEO tells her: ‘make this native.' There is no doubt that financial support is involved as well. We are taking this very seriously.”

The allegations against Kardashian come on the back of a scandal that has seen Iran crack down on Iranian models deemed to have posted “un-Islamic” photos on social media sites, like Instagram.

Over the weekend, authorities announced that they had arrested eight models over such images and were looking into 170 further cases.

The arrests which took place back in March were part of an operation, known as “Spider-2,” that targeted women that used Instagram to show off their figures or their uncovered hair.

A well-known model, Elham Arab, who is best known for her blonde hair, was subsequently seen apologising for her behaviour on Iranian state TV.

"All people love beauty and fame," she said. "They would like to be seen, but it is important to know what price they will pay to be seen."

Other social media stars including Iran’s so-called glamour king and queen, married model couple Elnaz Golrokh and Hamid Fadaei, are believed to have fled the country.