Sahar Tabar Iranian jail TV interview: The imprisoned Angelina Jolie Instagram star is condemned on public TV while conceding she wanted to be famous. Censoring of social media and females.
The recently jailed Iranian Instagram star known for her transformation into a zombie Angelina Jolie look-alike has appeared on state TV as an example of how ‘social media has ruined a life.’
Sahar Tabar appeared on Iranian Channel Two (IRTV2) three weeks after she was detained on charges of blasphemy, inciting violence, gaining income through inappropriate means and encouraging the corruption of young people.
During the interview, the 22-year-old was introduced as a ‘zombie’ and an example of how ‘the madness to become famous on social media has ruined a real life,’ the BBC reported.
IRTV2 described Tabar as being the only child of a divorced couple who ‘could have been in university by now’ if not for her ‘strange’ online persona.
‘My childhood dream was to become famous,’ Tabar said, her face blurred. ‘I saw people were following what I did and, when the likes grew, I felt I was doing the right thing.’
State media paraded Sahar Tabar (aka Corpse Bride) as an example of how ‘the madness to become famous on social media has ruined a real life’.
Some Iranians called it a “humiliating staged confession.”https://t.co/1mj4W7dCqq
— Holly Dagres (@hdagres) October 24, 2019
The censoring of Instagram and females in Iran:
The young woman shot to fame in 2017 after claiming that she’d had ’50 surgeries’ to look like her favorite Hollywood star — and posting selfies showing her hollow cheeks, inflated lips and cartoonish upturned nose.
She later revealed the ‘shocking, emaciated’ look was actually created with the help of makeup and digital editing. Last year, she shared images with her tens of thousands of followers showing what she actually looks like.
‘I do not currently look like my Photoshopped pictures,’ Tabar said during the IRTV2 interview.
Tabar denied that her goal was to look like Jolie, saying instead that she wanted to resemble the character in the 2005 animated movie ‘Corpse Bride.’
The broadcaster said Tabar had admitted that ‘vulgarity on social media gets a lot of clicks’ and that if she hadn’t followed that path she’d be ‘in a better place right now,’ Gulf News reported.
‘My mother was telling me to stop, but I didn’t listen,’ Tabar said. ‘Sometimes the words of a stranger or a friend can be more important than those of a parent.’
Amnesty International in the past has called on Iran to stop broadcasting so-called ‘confessions’ by suspects, saying they violate the rights of defendants.
Authorities said Tabar was arrested after multiple complaints from members of the public about her.
Her arrest marked the latest in a series of crackdowns on mostly female Instagram users in Iran.
Instagram is the only social media app available in Iran, with Facebook and Twitter banned.
Tabar’s Instagram account, which had 486,000 followers, no longer appears to be active.
