How an Instagram model got stuck in Iran's 'cultural' war
Back in 2017 Fatemah had claimed that she had undergone 50 surgeries to look like her favourite Hollywood star- Jolie
Iran has often been accused of suppressing its women and in a latest, a 19-year-old Instagram influencer is Tehran's latest victim.
Fatemah Khisvand's crime is that she uploaded zombie selfies and was charged for corrupting youngsters' mind and disrespecting the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The 19-year-old, who also goes by the name Sarah Tabar, has been sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
The photos that were uploaded by this model resembled Angelina Jolie and brought a lot of fame for her. About 500,000 people began following her.
She was 18 years old when she was arrested in 2019 and blasphemy, inciting violence, gaining income through appropriate means and corrupting young minds were the charges against her.
The Iranian media called the teenager a mentally disabled person seeking vulgarity.
Ironically, marital rape, failing to ensure women safety, forcing a dress code on women, normalising physical abuse is not vulgar for Iran.
Iran finds itself in the list of only six member states of UN that has not signed the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
In 1979, the Islamic Republic replaced Iran's Pahlavi dynasty and the priority of the nation's first supreme leader was to cancel the minimum age for marriage.
In 2017-18, 35,333 girls were married in Iran and 217 out of them were under 10 years.
The first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini also lifted all restrictions on polygamy.
On International Women's Day that year, the supreme leader's had a unique gift for women in govt jobs, ''wear a veil or stay at home".
Nothing has changed, when his successor Ali Khomeini took over and it was not until 2018 that he allowed women into sporting arenas.
The ban was lifted at the expense of Sahar Khodayari's death and a threat by FIFA.
Culture is Iran's favourite weapon on its war against women and it throws it whenever it wants to justify repression on females.
The Instagram model's popularity, liberation was so threatening for Tehran that she was branded as a criminal.
She now faces 10 years in jail, a price for trying to live her life the way she desired in Iran.