When Iranian-American actress Jewell Farshad received a DM from Iranian football star Ramin Rezaeian during the World Cup this summer, she initially thought little of it.
The actress, fresh off starring as Penelope in season three of Euphoria and has over a million followers Instagramis used to fellow celebrities reaching out.
The messages started out friendly before turning flirty, but soon took a more disturbing turn, Jewell says, when the football player began demanding explicit content and pressuring her to join him on a trip where he asked her to bring other women.
The Los Angeles-based actress and former Miss California spoke exclusively to the Daily Mail and opened up about her conversations with Rezaeian.
She described how he allegedly invited her to party with him in what she said felt like an “Epstein-like” situation when she realized he was with others, including the son of a prominent IRGC official.
Jewell says she first received a message from Rezaeian in late June Iran still competed in the World Cup.
At first their exchange was innocent. She told him she hoped the team would win. He thanked her and their messages were sporadic, sometimes hours or days between replies.
“One day I received a message from Ramin: ‘Where do you live? You’re so sexy?'” says Jewell.
“I didn’t think much about it because at first I thought our conversation was just about the Iranian team,” she says. “So when he started flirting with me, I just thought, ‘Okay, that’s a nice compliment.’
Jewell says she first received a message from Rezaeian in late June, while Iran was still participating in the World Cup
Jewell, left, starred in season three of Euphoria alongside Rosalia, center, and Zendaya, right
Jewell played stripper Penelope in the American young adult drama series
The actress is used to other celebrities reaching out
Ramin Rezaeian, who scored his first goal for Iran during this year’s World Cup
The actress told the footballer she lived in LA, and he asked if she wanted to see him in Paris, to which she cautiously said “maybe.” But suddenly the conversation turned sinister.
“Instead of cute, flirty messages like, ‘Yes, that would be nice to meet and talk again,’ it became, ‘Do you like having sex with girls? Have you been with girls? And can you send me a video of you playing with yourself?’
“It just went from zero to 100,” she says. “How do you go from, ‘Do you want to see me in Paris?’ to “Send me a full video of you playing with yourself?”‘
Jewell says she stopped responding, hoping he would understand her discomfort.
Instead, he would message again and again, with the DMs continuing late into the night and repeatedly asking Rezaeian about her sexual experiences and whether she had participated in orgies.
“I would just keep saying no,” she says. ‘I thought, “No, you know, I can’t send you anything. I’m an actor, I’m a model. I don’t want anything to come out.”
She said she felt so pressured that she almost agreed to meet him until she researched his name and found disturbing information linking him to inappropriate behavior toward women and young girls in the past.
After returning to Iran, Jewell says he began messaging her incessantly from a private Instagram account.
‘I saw him start sending messages, and I thought, “Wait, that’s really strange.” I would turn off the disappear mode, and he would turn it back on.”
“Then I thought, ‘Okay, I don’t think it’s safe for me to talk to him anymore,’ because there’s clearly more to it than that.”
Rezaeian reportedly asked the actress if she would be okay with involving other girls in a relationship.
“And the conversation he had with me about orgies and whether I was okay with women, that’s when it kind of clicked that the Paris thing wasn’t just about us going together.
“It’s more of a human trafficking situation, and there will be other girls there too.”
“I was like, ‘Oh, so you want me to take the initiative to bring other girls, and there will be other girls too.’ It was very Epstein-esque.”
It was then that she also realized that Rezaeian was traveling with Iranian influencer and son of former IRGC official Sasha Sobhani.
Rezaeian sent Jewell messages asking her if she had been with other women
Jewell described Rezaeian as the Islamic Republic’s “golden boy.”
Jewell says he started messaging her incessantly through a private Instagram account
“There were pictures of them together on the same private plane. Then a photo of them appeared on Twitter, saying they were in Saint-Tropez.
“Sasha was posting the parties, and the location was the exact same location I saw on my end on Ramin’s private account.
Jewell described Rezaeian as the Islamic Republic’s “golden boy,” a soccer player whose public image, she says, is in stark contrast to the behavior she encountered in private.
She pointed to his appearances at pro-regime rallies and public comments after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, when Rezaeian appeared on Iranian television and expressed his sadness, stating that he would continue to play as a “soldier for Iran in the national team.”
For the Euphoria actress, the contradiction was difficult to reconcile. ‘I was born in Iran and lived there until I was 18, so personally I have been traumatized by the regime. I was taken because I showed my hair or took a photo of a mosque, so I experienced that myself.’
Her experience with Rezaeian made her wonder how someone so closely associated with the regime could behave so differently in private.
Jewell posted about her interaction with Rezaeian on her Instagram Story and received a barrage of abuse and threats shortly after.
“A Telegram channel was created where people said there was a fatwa against me and that I am secretly a Mossad agent.”
‘Men would say that Ramin deserved to get whatever he wanted, that I should have just ‘opened my legs and let him have it all’ and I will never get anything better than him.’
Women also joined in, she claims, accusing her of lying, abusing Rezaeian and claiming suicide. “It felt like I was being stoned,” Jewell says.
But amid the backlash, several other women contacted her and claimed they had also received messages from Rezaeian, including requests for explicit photos.
“It is the core of what the Islamic Republic is,” she says. “They pretend that they are gods and prophets, that they have no Jeffrey Epsteins or Diddys, that they are above everything… But in private they do worse things than themselves.”
Jewell posted about her interaction with Raezian on her Instagram Story and received a barrage of abuse and threats shortly after
Jewell described Rezaeian as the Islamic Republic’s “golden boy.”
‘They don’t understand freedom. So when they see a free woman, they say, “Oh, she’s okay with the things I see in porn.”
“Why would a woman like Mahsa Amini be killed for showing her hair, while Ramin is then protected by the regime to behave as he pleases?” she asks.
‘Because he’s their golden boy. He is their player and represents them in the media. Why is the standard different for him?’
Jewell says Rezaeian has not denied sending her inappropriate messages. ‘He’s not ashamed of what he’s done. He thinks what he did was within reason and the law, and he deserves it.”
Ramin Rezaeian has been contacted for comment.
