Sahar Tabar: Angelina Jolie 'zombie' lookalike reveals real face on TV after release from Iranian prison
Iranian social media star Sahar Tabar, who is popularly known as 'Zombie Angelina Jolie' appeared in a TV interview to reveal her real face after being released from prison. Tabar had been arrested last year on charges of 'corruption' and 'blasphemy' and was recently released from prison after severe public outrage over her 10-year sentence, reveals activist Masih Alinejad.
You can see her real face here.
Famous for her photos on Instagram where she tweaks her facial features to resemble a gaunt and eerie, corpse bride-like version of Angelina Jolie, Tabar revealed in the interview that most of it is illusion and not surgery. While Rokna, the state-run media outlet that orchestrated the interview is yet to reveal what she said, they quoted her saying before her release that "what you saw on Instagram was the computer effects I used to create the image."
Rokna quoted Tabar saying that she posted those doctored images on Instagram as she had always 'wanted to be famous since I was a child'. "Cyberspace was an easy way. It was much easier than becoming an actor" she was quoted as saying by the outlet. But after what she went through, Tabar claimed "I'm sure I will not even put Instagram on my phone anymore, let alone have a page."
Real name Fatemeh Khishvand, Tabar had been in prison for less than 14 months following her October 2019 arrest. US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said that in April Tabar had been put on a ventilator after contracting Covid-19 in prison. Iran being one of the early hotspots of the pandemic, the CHRI revealed that while admitted in the Sina Hospital in Tehran, Tabar had become seriously ill before recovering.
Tabar was arrested last year after 'numerous requests from the public' demanded her being detained as reported by the government-run media outlet. Charges slammed against her were those of blasphemy, inciting violence, gaining income through inappropriate means, and encouraging corruption among the young. "I do not look like these photoshopped pictures right now," Tabar told the state-run Channel.
Tabar claims that she tried to look like Hollywood phenomenon Jolie and insisted her inspiration was drawn from the fantasy film 'Corpse Bride'. Her Instagram account with 486,000 followers, has since been taken down. The government-run outlet revealed Tabar was a child of a divorced couple and had been living with her mother. They claimed she "could have been in university by now" were it not for her "strange" internet presence. In her interview, Tabar claimed her mother had warned her against altering her presence but she continued, being tempted by the incoming likes. "I saw people were following what I did and, when the likes grew, I felt I was doing the right thing," she apparently said.
This comes after rights groups reveal that Iran has an extensive record of airing staged confessions on government-run TV channels. Amnesty International has already repeatedly called on Iran to stop broadcasting videos of similar staged 'confessions' claiming they 'violate the defendants' rights'.