Tehran, Dec 17, IRNA -- Police in Tehran have dismantled an international gang involved in duping young Iranian girls into prostitution and transferring them to foreign countries.

According to a deputy police head, Ahmad Rouzbehani, four women and eight men were arrested in connection with the case.

The arrest came after a woman came to police and complained of being sexually assaulted and then transferred to Dubai for prostitution, the official said.

"She claimed to have fled from Dubai to Iran after being assaulted and that she did not feel secure even now," Rouzbehani said.

Iranian press Tuesday said that morals police in central Isfahan had busted a prostitution gang in the city and arrested six people, including four women.

The daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami also said police had dismantled another prostitution gang and arrested all its members who duped young girls into dressing like boys and having "un-Islamic relations".

Under the Islamic Sharia law, practiced since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, prostitution is banned in Iran, but press regularly report on corruption gangs being dismantled as well as a rise in the scourge which officials relate to rising economic woes.

Press recently reported the first authorized meeting, in which police and prostitutes as well as women parliamentarians discussed the problems of the 'street women' -- a reference to prostitutes in the Islamic Republic.

They quoted a female MP from Tehran, Jamileh Kadivar, as saying that the session was held at a hotel here so that 'women MPs could get familiar with the problems of these women'.

A state official said in June that there were 300,000 prostitutes in the country and warned that the number could surge if measures were not taken to improve their poor living conditions.

Officials have warned that the phenomenon, if not checked, could lead to spread of AIDS which is relatively low in the Islamic Republic.

Police in Isfahan bust prostitution gangs: press

Tehran, Dec 17, IRNA -- Iran's morals police in central Isfahan have busted a prostitution gang in the city and arrested six people, including four women, the Persian daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami said Tuesday.

The arrest was made upon tip-off from citizens who were angry with the operation of the "corruption center" in the city, it added.

The paper also said police had dismantled another prostitution gang and arrested all its members who duped young girls into dressing like boys and having "un-Islamic relations".

The gang was operated by a male barber who cut short the hair of young girls with the help of a woman and "sexually exploited" them, Jomhuri-ye Eslami said.

Under the Islamic Sharia law, practiced since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, prostitution is banned in Iran, but press regularly report on corruption gangs being dismantled as well as a rise in the scourge which officials relate to rising economic woes.

Press recently reported the first authorized meeting, in which police and prostitutes as well as women parliamentarians discussed the problems of the 'street women' -- a reference to prostitutes in the Islamic Republic.

They quoted a female MP from Tehran, Jamileh Kadivar, as saying that the session was held at a hotel here so that 'women MPs could get familiar with the problems of these women'.

A state official said in June that there were 300,000 prostitutes in the country and warned that the number could surge if measures were not taken to improve their poor living conditions.

Officials have warned that the phenomenon, if not checked, could lead to spread of AIDS which is relatively low in the Islamic Republic.