Conservative Turkish municipality puts a veil on Selena Gomez

The municipality of Central Anatolian town Talas appears to have photoshopped a headscarf onto the image of American singer Selena Gomez for use on local billboards. Gomez is made to look like a student in the advertisement. This apparent case of photoshop would not be the first time conservative local governments have modified the appearance of women in photographs for public display.

Duvar English

The municipality of Central Anatolian town Talas’ manipulation of a photo of American singer Selena Gomez’ has caught the attention of her fans, becoming a topic of discussion on social media. 

The local government of Talas appears to have photoshopped an image of the star so that she looks like she is wearing a pink headscarf. The billboards appear in several locations across the city. 

“Welcome to the student-friendly town of Talas,” read the billboards. Even though the image appears to have been manipulated, some websites joked that “perhaps the girl on the billboard is just a Gomez look-alike.”

The fan account “Selena Gomez Worldwide” shared a photo of the billboard on Twitter, adding that “it’s an edit. Of course.”

The billboard images appear to have Talas Mayor Mustafa Yalçın’s signature on them. This case would not be the first time conservative local governments in Turkey have tampered with women’s photographs posted in public places. In the past, images have been edited so that women are wearing more clothes, ostensibly in the name of making them appear more modest.