Was US pop star Selena Gomez 'spotted in a hijab' in a tiny Turkish town?

American pop star and actress Selena Gomez has been pictured on a billboard in a small town in central Turkey.
2 min read
23 September, 2019
Selena Gomez doesn't appear to have visited Kayseri in the past [Getty]
Fans of US pop star Selena Gomez were shocked after they found the former Disney star was spotted wearing the Islamic veil in Turkey.

But Gomez hasn't embraced the hijab in a Lindsey Lohan-esque move.

On a billboard in Talas, a town of just 40,000 people in Turkey's central Kayseri province, the "Wizards of Waverly Place" star appears to don a pink headscarf.

Hijabi Gomez appears next to three other "students" in the billboard, a message from Talas municipality chief Mustafa Yalcin welcoming students to the town.

The US pop star obviously hasn't enrolled in the local Erciyes University.

Fan account "Selena Gomez Worldwide" on Sunday shared a photo of the billboard on Twitter, noting "it's an edit. of course".

[Twitter]

Perhaps - despite the die-hard fan's assurances that the Talas municipality had photoshopper the star's image - the girl on the billboard was just a Gomez lookalike.

But Turkish followers quickly added that it wasn't the first time Gomez' face had been used in the country, presumably without her authorisation.

One user shared an image of the actress used as a sign for a girls' dormitory in Turkey, while another noted that Gomez' image was often used on sex workers' calling cards.

Selena Gomez on a Turkish advertisement card for a "masseuse" [Twitter]

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