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.

After all the actress, fresh off starring as Penelope in season three of Euphoria and boasting more than one million followers on Instagram, is accustomed to fellow celebrities reaching out.

The messages began as friendly before becoming flirtatious, but soon took a more disturbing turn, Jewell says, when the footballer began demanding explicit content and pressuring her to join him on a trip where he asked her to bring other women.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, the Los Angeles-based actress and former Miss California detailed her exchanges with Rezaeian.

She described how he allegedly invited her to party with him in what she said felt like an ‘Epstein-esque’ situation when she realised he was with others, including the son of a prominent IRGC official.

Jewell says she first received a message from Rezaeian in late June, while Iran was still competing in the World Cup.

At first, their exchange was innocuous. She told him she hoped the team would win, he thanked her, and their messages were sporadic, sometimes with hours or days between replies.

‘One day, I received a message from Ramin saying, “Where do you live? You’re so sexy?”,’ Jewell says.

‘I didn’t think much of it because, in the beginning, I just thought our conversation was simply about the Iranian team,’ she says. ‘So when he started flirting with me, I just thought, “Okay, that is a nice compliment”.’

Jewell says she first received a message from Rezaeian in late June, while Iran was still competing in the World Cup

Jewell, left, starred in season three of Euphoria alongside Rosalia, centre, and Zendaya, right

Jewell played stripper Penelope in the American young adult drama series

The actress is accustomed to fellow celebrities reaching out

Ramin Rezaeian, who scored his Iran’s first goal during the World Cup this year

The actress told the footballer she lived in LA, and he asked if she wanted to see him in Paris, to which she tentatively said ‘maybe’. But suddenly, the conversation turned more sinister. 

‘Instead of cute, flirty messages like, “Yeah, that would be nice, to see each other and talk,” it turned into: “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-on video of you playing with yourself?”‘

Jewell says she stopped responding, hoping he would understand she had become uncomfortable. 

Instead he allegedly messaged again and again, with DMs continuing late into the night and Rezaeian repeatedly asking about her sexual experiences and whether she had participated in orgies.

‘I would just keep saying no,’ she says. ‘I was like, “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 she almost agreed to go meet him, until she researched his name and found disturbing information, linking him to having been inappropriate with women and young girls in the past.

After he returned to Iran, Jewell says he began messaging her incessantly from a private Instagram account.

‘I saw him start unsending messages, and I was like, “Wait, that’s really strange”. I would turn off vanish mode, and he would turn it back on.’

‘That’s when I was like, “Okay, I don’t think it’s safe for me to speak to him anymore,” because obviously there’s something more to this.’

Rezaeian reportedly asked the actress if she would be OK with bringing other girls into a relationship.

‘And the conversation that he was having with me about orgies and whether I was okay with women, that’s when it sort of clicked that the Paris thing wasn’t just about us going together.

‘It’s more of a situation of, like, trafficking, and there are going to be other girls there.’

‘I was like: “Oh, so you want me to basically initiate bringing other girls, and there’s also going to be other girls there.” It was very Epstein-esque.’

It was at this point she also realised Rezaeian was travelling with Iranian influencer and son of former IRGC official Sasha Sobhani.

Rezaeian sent Jewell messages where he asked her if she had been with other women

Jewell described Rezaeian as the Islamic Republic’s ‘golden boy’

Jewell says he began messaging her incessantly off of a private Instagram account

‘There were photos of them together by the same private plane. Then there was a photo of them that came out on Twitter, that they were in Saint-Tropez. 

‘Sasha was posting the parties, and the location was exactly the same location as I was seeing on my end on Ramin’s private account.

Jewell described Rezaeian as the Islamic Republic’s ‘golden boy’, a footballer whose public image, she says, stands in stark contrast to the behaviour she encountered in private.

She pointed to his appearances at pro-regime rallies and public comments following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, when Rezaeian appeared on Iranian television and expressed his grief, stating he would continue to play as a ‘soldier for Iran on 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 I personally have been traumatised by the regime. I’ve been taken in for showing my hair or taking a photo of a mosque, so I personally experienced that.’

Her experience with Rezaeian made her question 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 soon after began receiving a barrage of abuse and threats.

‘A Telegram channel was created where people were saying there was a fatwa against me and that I’m secretly a Mossad agent.’

‘Men would say that Ramin deserved to have whatever he wanted, that I should have just “opened my legs and let him have whatever” and I will never have anything better than him.’

Women also joined in, she claims, accusing her of lying, abusing Rezaeian and telling her to kill herself. ‘I felt like I was being stoned to death,’ Jewell says.

But amid the backlash, several other women contacted her claiming they too had received messages from Rezaeian, including requests for explicit photographs.

‘It’s the core of what the Islamic Republic is,’ she says, ‘They pretend that they’re gods and prophets, that they don’t have Jeffrey Epsteins, or Diddys, that they are above it all… But then, in private, they do worse things than them.’

Jewell posted about her interaction with Raezian on her Instagram story and soon after began receiving a barrage of abuse and threats

Jewell described Rezaeian as the Islamic Republic’s ‘golden boy’

‘They don’t understand freedom. So when they see a free woman, they’re like, “Oh, she’s okay with the stuff that I see in porn”.’

‘Why should a woman get killed, like Mahsa Amini, for showing her hair, and then Ramin is protected by the regime to behave however he wants?’ she asks.

‘Because he’s their golden boy. He’s their player and represents them in 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 did. He thinks that what he did was within reason and law, and he deserves it.’

Ramin Rezaeian has been contacted for comment.