Iranian Instagram star Sahar Tabar, who shot to fame with her zombie Angelina Jolie transformation, was presented on state TV to demonstrate how “social media has ruined a life.”
The 22-year-old was detained on charges of blasphemy, inciting violence, gaining income through inappropriate means and encouraging the corruption of young, impressionable followers.
During the interview she was introduced as a “zombie” and a cautionary tale of how “the madness to become famous on social media has ruined a real life,” the BBC reported.
Tabar is the only child of a divorced couple and according to IRTV2 she “could have been in university by now” if not for her “strange” online persona.
“My childhood dream was to become famous, I saw people were following what I did and, when the likes grew, I felt I was doing the right thing.” Tabar said on her state TV appearance where her face was blurred.
Sahar Tabar came into the limelight in 2017 when she claimed she’d had “50 surgeries” to look like Angelina Jolie. She also posted selfies of herself with hollow cheeks, excessively puckered lips and an upturned nose.
She later came forward to admit that the emaciated look was created using make up and digital modification and has since shared multiple photos with her actual look.
“I do not currently look like my Photoshopped pictures,” she admitted in the IRTV2 interview.
The Instagram star denied that she was trying to copy Angelina Jolie and said she was rather trying to impersonate her character in animated film “Corpse Bride.”
The news broadcaster said Tabar had confessed that “vulgarity on social media gets a lot of clicks”.
“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.”
Instagram remains the one social media app as Iran has already banned FB and Twitter.
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