Some Iranians saw an entirely different Oscars outfit on First Lady Michelle Obama than the one she was actually wearing Sunday night. A semi-official Iranian news agency called Fars altered the image to give Obama a more covered-up dress, in order to appeal to their more conservative readers.
In the Photoshopped image, Obama's Naeem Khan dress was transformed from a sleeveless silver gown to a much more covered ensemble - with covered shoulders and chest, ABC OTUS News reported.
The dress is modest by American standards, but because it exposed Obama's shoulders and partial chest, it violated the code of modesty in many Muslim countries.
Patrick Ventrell, deputy State Department spokesperson, did not specifically speak of Obama's dress, but said the department has seen the Iranian government manipulate images and statements before.
"We've persistently seen Iranian news agencies, whether they're partially or fully state-run, use fabrication and use other means to distort images," Ventrell told ABC. "It's something that we've seen in the past here in this department. We've seen photos manipulated. We've seen official statements manipulated. So there would be nothing new. It wouldn't surprise me."
The Middle Eastern media has also covered up other female figures - for example, in 2011, supermodel Gisele Bündchen were digitally altered to cover the model in her H&M campaign ad photos, running in Dubai.
Saudi Arabia also modified Maria Carey's outfits to make them align with the values of the Muslim culture, ABC reported.
Iranian media was also bothered by other aspects of this year's Academy Awards - namely the selection of "Argo" as the best picture of the year. Mehr News wrote a headline against Ben Affleck's acceptance speech. The headline read, "After distorting history, Ben Affleck continues to show a bleak picture of Iran: Iranians live in terrible circumstances."
The film also drew criticism from the Asriran news website, suggesting it has anti-Iranian inclinations, ABC reported.
Iranian media called the award a "political" win, even though the film, which depicts the Iranian hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981, was never shown in any Iranian theater.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
