Mona Farjad After Thieves' Attack: I Felt the Meaning of 'Lack of Security'; Police Commander's Claim: 'False'

Mona Farjad, a cinema and theater actress, announced that on Saturday evening, she and a friend were attacked by a man wielding a machete, wearing a black hat and mask, next to a restaurant. Meanwhile, the police commander of Greater Tehran called the incident 'completely false.' The well-known actress wrote on her Instagram account on Sunday, November 6: 'We were standing in front of the restaurant searching for posters of foreign films on social media. From the corner of my eye, I felt a dark presence next to me and when I turned to face it, I came eye to eye with a man in a black hat and mask. In a split second, I shouted 'thief,' grabbed my friend's mobile and collar, and at the same time saw the sharpness of the thief's machete as he swung it towards us.' Mona Farjad stated that 'we were thrown at least two meters on the ground,' and mentioned that her sister Maral, along with another person named 'Nushan Tahmasbi,' were standing at a distance and thought 'it was over, and they had hit us,' and 'the sound of screams and shouts helped the thief flee on a motorcycle.' Farjad emphasized that 'I saw the sharpness of the thief's machete as he swung it towards us' and 'I will never forget the glint of the machete that passed by my friend's neck.' She also stressed that 'today I felt the true meaning of lack of security,' saying that when she arrived at a nearby hospital, she learned that 'robberies and assaults occur 20 times a week on that street' and 'just at the spot where we had this bitter experience, a man had been attacked with a machete the night before and injured in the leg.' Mona Farjad also published images related to the injuries caused by the thieves' attack on her and her friend. While the image and description of the machete attack were published on Mona Farjad's official Instagram page, the information center of the Greater Tehran police command claimed that this incident was 'completely false and a lie.' According to Mehr News Agency, the information center of the Greater Tehran police claimed that 'according to a thorough investigation, the news about the theft with a cold weapon from one of the country's cinema and theater actors is completely false and a lie, and this falsehood was propagated by misusing the image of this actress during her visit to a medical center.' This claim by the police commander comes as the wife of the famous Iranian musician and composer Kayhan Kalhor recently reported the theft of some household items on her personal Instagram page. Zahra Soltanabadi stated that the thief stole 'boxing gloves, sports supplements, an espresso machine, and leather pilot and motorcycle jackets' from their home. Attacks on cultural and sports figures in the form of theft have increased in recent months, and previous reports have documented attacks on prominent figures such as Ali Daei and Alireza Beiranvand. In recent weeks, the horrific murder of Dariush Mehrjui, a renowned Iranian filmmaker, and his wife Vahideh Mohammadi-Far made headlines, and while many analysts compared it to the serial killings of dissidents in previous decades, judicial and police officials attributed their murder to several thieves and imposed restrictions on journalists and media in following up on this issue.