'Zombie' Teen Gets 10 Years

Sahar Tabar was arrested in Tehran after posting distorted images of herself on social media
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 12, 2020 10:00 AM CST
'Zombie Angelina' Is Sentenced
Sahar Tabar, who got 10 years in prison in Iran after posting images like these.   (YouTube)

The crime: posting on Instagram. The sentence: 10 years. An Iranian court has sentenced teenager Sahar Tabar to a decade behind bars after she posted distorted images of her face on social media, Metro reports. The 19-year-old was celebrated for the Instagram posts, in which she resembled a "zombie" Angelina Jolie—but authorities arrested her in 2019 and charged her with blasphemy, inciting violence, gaining income through inappropriate means, and encouraging youths to corruption. The Guardian reports that Tabar said two of the charges were dropped and she hoped to be pardoned. Her remorseful confession was broadcast on Iranian state TV last year, drawing widespread sympathy. The report said Tabar was plagued by "an abnormal personality and mental state."

But so far, no pardon. "I call on Angelina Jolie to help an Iranian 19-year-old girl who received 10 years prison sentence for using makeup & Photoshop to turn herself into Angelina," Iranian Journalist Masih Alinejad tweeted Friday. "Islamic Republic has a history of tormenting women. We need to be united against this gender apartheid." Tabar, whose real name is Fatemeh Khishvand, denied reports that she underwent 50 surgeries to become "zombie Angelina." She did have some cosmetic surgery, she said, but achieved her Instagram look with makeup and editing. "It is a way of expressing yourself, a kind of art," she explained. "My fans know that this is not my real face."
(More Iran stories.)

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