An Iranian woman who shocked the internet with her attempts to look like actor Angelina Jolie has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to her lawyers in Iran.
Sahar Tabar, whose real name is Fatemeh Khishvand, was sentenced last week for corruption of young people and disrespecting the Islamic Republic, The Guardian and BBC News Persian report. She will spend the next 10 years in prison, according to Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad.
“Her joke landed her in jail,” Alinejad tweeted on Friday. She also called for Jolie to intervene on Tabar’s behalf.
Tabar captured viral fame in 2017 with photos that depicted her as a zombified version of Jolie. The images were initially thought to be the result of extreme plastic surgery, though she later explained that she’d produced the effect through makeup and photo editing software.
The photos made Tabar an internet star abroad and a target at home, where she was eventually arrested under Iran’s strict public decency laws in late 2019.
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Tabar confessed to her supposed crimes on Iranian state TV last October, then pleaded for release in the spring, when she claimed to have the coronavirus.
Various reports suggest she is between the ages of 19 and 23.
Her Instagram page was deleted in 2019.
Iran has banned several major social media networks in the country, including Facebook and Twitter.
Tabar is reportedly hoping to appeal her sentence.
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