A gunman on a motorcycle has reportedly shot dead a well-known Iraqi social media influencer in her car.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, a security source said.
Om Fahad, who has almost half a million followers on TikTok, became famous for posting upbeat dancing videos. Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared pictures of herself driving a car and also posing in front of a mirror. Each of them has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines public modesty and morals.”
In 2023, the Iraqi government launched a campaign to crack down on social media content that broke the country’s “morals and traditions.”
The Home Office set up a committee to search for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, and several influencers were arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organized crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video asking the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
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Last year, Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said the morality campaign “has nothing to do with freedom of expression.”
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot and killed Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still limited in a conservative, male-dominated society.