In Iran, a young woman has been sentenced to ten years in prison for allegedly breaking the law by distributing heavily edited self-portraits on Instagram. Some of her pictures had attracted worldwide attention and her account now has hundreds of thousands of followers, writes the Guardian. In the photos that Sahar Tabar – whose real name is Fatemeh Khishvand – shared on her Instagram channel, she sometimes looks like a zombie.

Tabar was best known for photos in which she looks like a zombie version of the US actress Angelina Jolie, but her role model was probably the film “Corpse Bride – Wedding with a Corpse” by Tim Burton. At first, there were rumors that she had undergone dozens of cosmetic surgeries, according to the BBC. However, she later stated that the photos were largely based on makeup and digital image manipulation. In October 2019 the then 22 – year old was arrested, the authorities had accused her of blasphemy, among other things. Her confession was then presented on Iranian television as an example of how trying to become famous on social media “ruined a real life”.

How The Guardian goes on to write that she was initially still accused of inciting violence, making inappropriate money and driving young people to corruption. Of the total of four charges, two were dropped, but it is unknown which ones. The harsh sentence now came in parallel with the execution of journalist and blogger Ruhollah Zam, who had spread revelations about Iranian state officials on Telegram, among other things. Both make it clear once again how hard the Islamic Republic is against the Internet and unwanted content and those responsible for it.

(mho)