Weighing 23kg... Turkish Female Influencer Dies After Battle With Anorexia

Beauty Influencer Dies of Cardiac Arrest During Illness
Weighed Only 23kg at Death... "Objectification of Women Is the Problem"

A female influencer from Turkey, who had about 900,000 followers, has died after a two-year battle with anorexia. Criticism is mounting that societal pressure on women and an appearance-focused perspective contributed to this tragedy.

According to foreign media outlets such as The Sun in the UK, beauty influencer Nihal Kandan, 30, died of cardiac arrest on June 21 while receiving treatment for anorexia at a hospital.

At the time of her death, Kandan reportedly weighed only 23 kilograms, and she had been subsisting on coffee and carbonated drinks every day before she passed away.

Reports indicate that she experienced rapid weight loss in recent years. After being arrested along with her brother in 2023 on charges of fraud and money laundering related to car sales, her anorexia symptoms worsened significantly, and she lost about 40 kilograms over the past two years.

Influencer Nihal Kandan from Turkey who died due to complications from anorexia
[Image source=Screenshot from Nihal Kandan's Instagram]

The Federation of Turkish Women's Associations commented on Kandan's death, stating, "This incident shows that appearance-based pressure and coercion imposed on women by society can take lives." They criticized TV programs that objectify women and the overall societal atmosphere, calling for self-reflection.

Anorexia is an eating disorder characterized by extreme restriction of food intake and an obsession with weight loss. Experts warn that anorexia is often accompanied by mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and in severe cases, it can lead to serious physical symptoms such as hypothermia, amenorrhea, dehydration, and low blood pressure.

Anorexia is known to be more strongly influenced by sociocultural factors than by genetic ones. The gaze of others, a culture of comparison, and evaluations based on appearance are major contributing factors.

In particular, unrealistic body images and content that glamorize dieting, which are spread on social networking services (SNS), have a significant impact on young people in their teens and twenties. Such content glorifies extremely thin bodies to the point where bones are visible, and has even created the neologism "Bbyeomala" (meaning "bone-thin"), further spreading distorted beauty standards.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's report on "Weight Loss Attempts by Adult BMI Classification," 30% of women in their twenties perceive themselves as overweight even though they are of normal weight. Additionally, 53.9% of women in their twenties attempted to lose weight, and even among underweight women (14.8%), 16.2% tried to lose more weight.

Compared to the general population, people with anorexia have a six times higher risk of death, and anorexia is also known as one of the mental disorders with the highest suicide rates.