Woman Dubbed 'Zombie Angelina Jolie' Looked Very Different When She Finally Appeared On TV

Sahar Tabar became an international internet curiosity in 2017 after posting a series of unsettling photos that made her face look almost unrecognizable. The images spread well beyond her original Instagram audience, and strangers soon gave her a nickname that followed her for years: the 'Zombie Angelina Jolie'.

Tabar, whose real name is Fatemeh Khishvand, was from Tehran, Iran. Her pale skin, hollow-looking cheeks, oversized lips and sharp features led many people to assume she had gone through extreme cosmetic surgery in an attempt to resemble Hollywood star Angelina Jolie.

That was never the full story. Speaking to Russian outlet Sputnik in 2017, Tabar said she had exaggerated her appearance because she found the images entertaining. Makeup and heavy photo editing played a major role in creating the face that had suddenly made her famous.

The most persistent claim was that Tabar had undergone more than 50 procedures to turn herself into Jolie. That figure appeared across international coverage, but Tabar later pushed back against the idea that copying the actor had ever been her actual goal.

She told Sputnik: "Now I can see that I have something in common with [Angelina Jolie], but I amuse myself, and to look like someone is not my goal."

For Tabar, the strange images were closer to creating an online character than documenting how she looked in everyday life. She explained: "Over time I post a photo, I make my face more fun and funny, it is a form of self-expression, a kind of art."

Tabar had undergone some real cosmetic work, but nowhere near the extreme transformation suggested by her viral photographs. Reports said she had rhinoplasty, liposuction and injectable fillers in her lips.

The rest of the dramatic effect came from makeup and digital editing. That meant people who had spent years imagining she permanently looked like the gaunt figure on Instagram were eventually in for a surprise when an unedited version of her face appeared publicly.

The difference was significant enough to expose how far the original viral narrative had drifted from reality. A 2017 report from the Evening Standard noted that Tabar said the photos were manipulated and that she had undergone only a handful of actual procedures rather than the dozens widely attributed to her.

The influencer went viral in 2017 Instagram/@sahartabar_official

The '50 surgeries' story became bigger than her explanation

Part of what made Tabar's story so unusual was how quickly one version of it became accepted online. Once the idea spread that a young Iranian woman had undergone around 50 operations to resemble Angelina Jolie, the shocking photographs seemed to provide all the proof people needed.

Her own explanation was less dramatic. Tabar said she had used makeup and editing software to distort her face, while acknowledging that she had also undergone some cosmetic procedures. She also denied that becoming a copy of Jolie was the point of the project.

By then, however, the 'Zombie Angelina Jolie' description had become part of her online identity. The exaggerated photographs were shared without the context behind them, leaving many people convinced they were looking at the permanent result of dozens of surgeries rather than a deliberately altered social media persona.

Years after those images first went viral, Tabar appeared before cameras for Iranian outlet Rokna and showed viewers what her face actually looked like without the extreme effects that had made her famous.

The difference immediately became the main talking point. The woman sitting for the interview looked nothing like the hollow-faced 'Zombie Angelina Jolie' character that had circulated across social media. During the appearance, Tabar also spoke about how her family had reacted when she began posting the edited pictures online.

She explained: "Sometimes the words of a stranger or a friend can be more important than those of a parent,"

Tabar then made the role of editing much clearer while discussing the images responsible for the nickname. She said: "What you saw on Instagram was the computer effects I used to create the image."

Her drive to build an audience was also part of it. Tabar added: "Cyberspace was an easy way. It was much easier than becoming an actor."

She was also quoted as saying she had 'wanted to be famous since I was a child'. The internet gave her a much faster route to that attention than trying to establish herself as an actor, but after everything that followed, she said she did not plan to return to Instagram.

Sahar's real appearance surprised the world YouTube/Rokna

Seeing Tabar without the editing prompted another wave of reaction online. One person focused less on whether she looked like Jolie and more on the amount of attention strangers had given her appearance, writing: "It's amazing how many people put so much thought into what other people are doing to be comfortable in their own skin."

Another viewer had a less sympathetic response and wrote: "Wow! It's so sad what lengths people would go to for fame…"

By that stage, Tabar had faced consequences far more serious than harsh comments. Iranian authorities arrested her in October 2019 during a crackdown that also targeted people whose social media activity was considered unacceptable by the state.

The initial charges against Tabar included blasphemy, inciting violence, gaining income through inappropriate means and encouraging young people toward corruption. When her case reached sentencing in December 2020, The Guardian reported that her lawyer said she had received a 10-year prison sentence. Tabar said she had been cleared of two of the four original charges.

Despite the length of that sentence, she did not remain behind bars for a decade. Tabar had already spent about 14 months in custody following her October 2019 arrest and was released on bail in December 2020, just days after news of the sentence became public.

Her widely shared television appearance showing her real face came much later, in October 2022. That timing placed the interview during widespread protests across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she had been detained by the country's morality police over an alleged violation of hijab rules. The protests therefore coincided with Tabar's return to public attention, rather than with the 14 months she had spent in custody two years earlier.