Sara, who would only give her first name, is 35. She's married and recently gave birth to her first child. She is unhappy with the way her body has changed: “After I gave birth, I tried very hard to lose weight. I went to the gym and tried many different diets but nothing worked. One of my friends suggested that I do liposuction and have the extra fat removed from my body. I had seen a lot of advertisements regarding this in the satellite programs. After some consultations, however, I realized that not all doctors, or clinics, are trustworthy since many of them do not have the necessary specialties.”

This conversation might have sounded strange to Iranians a decade ago, but today such surgeries are performed regularly in Iran. Botox, lip augmentation, upper eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) and eye lift procedures are among the cosmetic surgeries that Iranian women are interested in. These procedures are not cheap, however, and sometimes they cost more than a few months’ salary for someone making the minimum income as defined by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Iran — minimum income of a single laborer is $270 per month, whereas a chin reduction procedure on average costs $1,500 to $2,100.

As social networks expanded, cosmetic surgery advertising has expanded as well. I was able to acquire a list of the prices after contacting a few centers — breast prosthesis: $3,800 to $4,200; upper eyelid surgery: $900 to $1,150; body contouring: from $3,000 to $9,000 depending on the amount of work done; eye lift: $500 to $700; double chin liposuction: $550 to $650; hair implantation for men: $950 to $2,400.

Maryam Safara, a psychologist and a faculty member at Alzahra University, said in an interview with Iranian media: “One of the main reasons that the number of cosmetic surgeries have increased is that people’s self-esteem has decreased. In other words, someone, who has not found her true place and is not satisfied with who she is, will try to gain that necessary satisfaction this way.”