You remember the photos. Everyone does. In 2017, a series of haunting, gaunt, and frankly terrifying images went viral across Instagram. They showed a young woman with sunken eyes, a protruding nose, and skin that looked more like gray parchment than human flesh. The internet immediately dubbed her the "Zombie Angelina Jolie." People were horrified. They were fascinated. Most of all, they were confused about how a teenager could transform so drastically. But when you actually look at the Sahar Tabar before and after timeline, the truth is far more complicated than a simple "plastic surgery gone wrong" cautionary tale. It’s a mix of heavy-handed Photoshop, genuine cosmetic procedures, and a legal nightmare that ended in an Iranian prison.
Sahar Tabar, whose real name is Fatemeh Khishvand, didn't actually look like a Tim Burton character in real life. Not even close.
The Viral Illusion vs. Reality
For a long time, the narrative was that Sahar had undergone 50 surgeries to look like Angelina Jolie. That was the magic number floating around every tabloid from the Daily Mail to various TikTok explainers. It’s a catchy hook. But it was mostly nonsense. Fatemeh later admitted that while she did have some work done—specifically a nose job, lip fillers, and liposuction—the "Corpse Bride" aesthetic was almost entirely the result of digital manipulation and professional-grade makeup.
She was a kid playing with an audience.
She used her face as a canvas. By stretching her features in editing apps and using heavy contouring, she created a caricature that she knew would get clicks. It worked. Within a short span, her Instagram account boasted hundreds of thousands of followers. The Sahar Tabar before and after comparison that most people saw was actually a comparison between a normal girl and a digital avatar.
What She Actually Looked Like
Before the fame, Fatemeh was a relatively typical Iranian teenager. If you find the rare, unedited photos of her from her early teens, you see a girl with dark hair and soft features. There was no "zombie" look. There was no skeletal structure.
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Then came the nose jobs. In Iran, rhinoplasty is incredibly common; Tehran is often called the "nose job capital of the world." For Fatemeh, it seems the first few surgeries were standard. But as her online persona grew, so did the disconnect between her physical self and her digital brand. The real Sahar Tabar before and after isn't just about the scalpel. It’s about the psychological shift of a young girl seeing how much more attention she received when she looked "broken" or "monstrous" compared to when she looked "pretty."
She eventually told Iranian state media, "This is Photoshop and makeup. Every time I publish a photo, I paint my face in an increasingly funny way. It is a way of expressing yourself, a kind of art. My fans know that this is not my real face."
The Arrest and the Dark Turn
The story stopped being a weird internet curiosity in October 2019. Iranian authorities arrested Fatemeh as part of a crackdown on Instagram influencers. The charges were heavy: blasphemy, inciting violence, gaining income through inappropriate means, and encouraging youths to corruption.
Think about that for a second.
A teenager was thrown into jail because her art—however macabre or "weird"—was seen as a threat to national morality. This is where the Sahar Tabar before and after discussion gets somber. We aren't talking about filters anymore. We’re talking about a 19-year-old girl caught in a legal system that didn't care about "clout" or "digital performance."
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She was sentenced to ten years in prison.
While incarcerated, she reportedly contracted COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. Her lawyers fought for her release, pointing out her age and the fact that her online persona was an act. Prominent activists, including Masih Alinejad, took up her cause, calling on Angelina Jolie herself to intervene. The outcry worked, sort of. She was released on bail in late 2020 after serving about 14 months.
The Unmasking: The Final "After"
When Fatemeh was released from prison, she appeared on Iranian television. This was the moment the world finally saw the real "after."
She didn't look like a zombie.
She didn't look like a skeleton.
She looked like a normal young woman, albeit one who had clearly had some cosmetic work on her nose and lips. The dramatic, hollowing cheekbones were gone because they never existed in the first place. The glowing blue eyes were just contacts. The gray skin was just foundation and lighting. Seeing her sit there, speaking calmly about how she regretted the pursuit of online fame, was a massive "Aha!" moment for the internet.
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The Sahar Tabar before and after saga is a perfect case study in how easily we are fooled by the digital world. We wanted to believe she was a "plastic surgery addict" because it fit a specific trope we enjoy—the girl who went too far for beauty. In reality, she was a girl who went too far for attention, using the tools of her generation to create a monster that eventually swallowed her real life.
Why the Story Still Resonates
Why do we still care about this years later? Honestly, it’s because it exposes the fragility of truth in the social media era. Sahar Tabar was the ultimate deepfake before deepfakes were even a mainstream concern. She showed that you don't need sophisticated AI to trick the entire world; you just need some editing software and an understanding of what shocks people.
The tragedy isn't that she ruined her face. She didn't. The tragedy is that she lost over a year of her youth to a prison cell because she dared to play a character that a conservative government found offensive.
Lessons from the Sahar Tabar Saga
If you’re looking at these photos and wondering what to take away from it, consider these points:
- Digital literacy is non-negotiable. If a photo looks impossible, it probably is. The human body has limits; Photoshop does not.
- The "Surgeon" isn't always to blame. Tabloids love to blame doctors, but in this case, the "surgery" was largely pixels.
- Fame has a physical cost. Even if the face was fake, the prison time was very real. The pursuit of "likes" can lead to real-world consequences that no filter can fix.
- Context matters. To the West, she was a meme. To her own government, she was a criminal. Understanding the cultural backdrop of an influencer's life is vital before passing judgment.
Fatemeh Khishvand has mostly stayed out of the international spotlight since her release. She seems to have learned that the "Zombie" character was a dangerous one to play. The Sahar Tabar before and after narrative serves as a stark reminder that while we can edit our faces for the world to see, we still have to live in the physical world where actions have weight and the truth eventually comes to light.
To stay safe in an era of extreme body modification and digital manipulation, always vet the sources of viral "transformation" stories. Look for unedited video footage, which is much harder to fake than a still Instagram post. Most importantly, recognize that the "perfection" or "extremity" seen on screen is often a product for sale, not a reflection of a human life.