Sahar Tabar

Fatemeh Khishvand, known by her Instagram username of Sahar Tabar, is an Iranian influencer who rose to prominence in 2017 for her supposed use of cosmetic surgery (in fact, makeup and Photoshop) in images of herself posted to Instagram. It was rumored that she had altered her face through as many as fifty plastic surgeries. Tabar was interviewed on Iranian national television in October 2019 after she was arrested on charges including blasphemy and illegally obtaining money. Tabar was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in December 2020.

Tabar's images on Instagram gathered over 486,000 followers. The images were unusual due to unnatural skin coloring and distorted facial features that included exaggerated lips and a pointy, turned-up nose. In a 2017 interview with Sputnik News, Tabar explained the images were created primarily using makeup and Photoshop, with cosmetic procedures limited at that time to rhinoplasty, liposuction, and injectable fillers in her lips. Some of the photos and videos shared with her followers appeared to have been heavily edited to resemble Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, but Tabar denied this intention.

On 5 October 2019, Tabar was arrested in Tehran on charges of "blasphemy, instigating violence, illegally acquiring property, violating the national dress code and encouraging young people to commit corruption" according to the Tasnim news agency, which also stated that the arrest was a response to complaints from the public. Her Instagram account was deleted at the time of her arrest. Three days later, three more female Instagram influencers were arrested in Iran: Sahra Afsharian, Sara Shariatmadari and Niloufar Moti'ei.
On 13 April 2020, Sahar Tabar was diagnosed with COVID-19 while in prison during the pandemic in Iran.

On Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Channel 3 (IRIB TV3), it was reported that Tabar faced a prison sentence of between three months and two years on charges of "obtaining money through illegitimate means, and publishing inappropriate and vulgar photographs".

Tabar was introduced as a "zombie" for a pre-trial interview broadcast on 22 October 2019 by IRIB TV2. Although her face was blurred in the broadcast, Tabar stated that she did not look like her Instagram images because they were heavily Photoshopped in an attempt to look like the titular character in Corpse Bride. She told the interviewer that her childhood dream was to become famous, and she had persisted with building her Instagram fame despite the objections of her mother. Tabar admitted that she had not completed high school, and the broadcast claimed that her efforts to gain online fame had prevented her from advancing to higher education.

The IRIB TV2 interview mitigated the charges against Tabar by presenting her as a person with a psychological disorder, who had believed her posts were acceptable because of the encouragement she received from her many Instagram followers. Nonetheless, Tabar later received a ten year prison sentence.

Cosmetic surgery is popular in Iran. The country has the highest rate of nose surgery in the world. A turned-up nose – or just wearing a nose bandage – is widely seen as fashionable, both among men and women, and among progressives and conservatives. Apart from beauty standards, the motivation for surgery may include expression of social status, marriage, self-expression, or boredom in a country with otherwise restricted dress codes. For some, it is "a reaction to the restrictive rules of compulsory hijab."

In the 1980s, the Ayatollah Khomeini spoke up in favor of rhinoplasty. He referred to the Hadith, asserting that since it indicates that "God is beautiful and loves beauty" actions taken to be more beautiful are endorsed by it.