This video got 1.2 million views during 2 days! It tells about a woman who attacked the YouTube office and committed suicide. Who was she? Why did she do it? Was she crazy or just misunderstood?
The YouTube shooter, Nasim Aghdam, was widely known on Iranian social media as Nasime Sabz, which means “Green Nasim”, because of her advocacy for animal rights, healthy living, and veganism. Her specific style of videos made her relatively famous among Iran’s growing YouTube and Instagram influencers.
For instance, one – showing a rabbit – where she explains the differences between vegetarianism and being vegan. In another video, she explains the benefits of eating a papaya. One of her most well-known videos here is one where she’s wearing a revealing purple dress. Don’t believe what you see – is a message, appearing in the video screen.
“I’m being discriminated, and filtered on YouTube, and I’m not the only one. And if you go and check my videos, you’ll see that my new videos hardly get views”.
She also criticizes YouTube and makes a physical protest a year ago by going on the streets, posting what she claims to be a picture of herself holding up a sign saying, “YouTube dictatorship”.
And then there is a video that gives more insight, if you will, into the life of Ms. Aghdam. She had fled her native Iran decades ago. In that video, she explains that, even though she was a member of the Baha'i Faith, which is a persecuted faith in Iran, she doesn’t really like life in the United States. And she literally says: In Iran, they kill you by axe, but in the United States, they kill you with cotton. An Iranian expression for saying that she is dying a slow death in the United States.
“Welcome to freedom of speech. Do you think that Iran is better than the U.S.A., or U.S.A. is better than Iran?”
She was also repeatedly being teased online for her comments. Many Iranian users in social media would ridicule her, would tell her that she’s crazy. And in one video, she actually explains that she's doing very well, and that it's actually the people who are making those comments who are mentally ill.
She also criticizes Instagram, by saying that her followers are all real. She actually has several Instagram accounts. She also had a Telegram channel. Before she attacked the YouTube office and subsequently killed herself, one of her last posts there, is a childhood photo of herself posing between flowers, with one flower stuck in her hair.
