US porn actress Whitney Wright has sparked a wave of condemnation online after she posted photos from her recent trip to Iran. Critics have argued that the visit was an act of support for the government in Tehran.
Earlier this week, the performer, whose real name is Brittni Rayne Whittington, shared several photos on Instagram, in which she is seen wearing a hijab while traveling around Tehran. In some of the images, the actress is seen standing in front of the former US Embassy in the Iranian capital, which was turned into a museum after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, when 52 American diplomats were held hostage by a group of militarized Iranian students for 444 days.
Her posts were met with backlash online from people critical of the Iranian government, with some questioning how a porn star was allowed to get a visa for a country where pornography is punishable by death. Others accused the actress of anti-Semitism for supposedly supporting Iran’s anti-Israeli government. Wright has used social media before to criticize Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza.
According to media reports, the Iranian government has denied being aware of Wright’s trip and insisted that she was issued a visa to enter the country just like any other foreign citizen. The authorities reportedly said, however, that they were “not aware of the nature of her immoral and obscene occupation.”
Much of the criticism of Wright’s visit was amplified by US-based Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad, who said in a post on X that the porn actress was promoting discriminatory Iranian laws by wearing a hijab during her visit. She also accused the Iranian government of hypocrisy for allowing the porn star to enter the country while “women are killed for simply showing their hair and being true to themselves.”
Wright responded to the backlash by limiting interactions on her Instagram posts and dismissing Alinejad’s comments, accusing the activist of being paid by the CIA to spread anti-Iranian propaganda and insisting that her trip was “not an endorsement” of the Iranian government.