Om Fahad, a popular Iraqi TikTok personality, was shot dead near her home in Baghdad on Friday evening. International media report this. Ghufran Sawadi — her real name — was killed after she was shot in her car outside her home by a motorcyclist posing as a food delivery person. The perpetrator is on the run and the motive for the murder is not yet known. In recent years, several Iraqi social media personalities – particularly women and people from the LGBTI community – have been targeted with threats and deadly violence.
29-year-old Fahad, who has half a million followers on TikTok, was sentenced last year by an Iraqi court to six months in prison for sharing “videos with indecent statements that undermine modesty and public morality.” She made herself popular with her followers by posting light-hearted videos of herself dancing to pop music.
In recent years, Iraqi authorities have attempted to further criminalize the online expression of various forms of sexuality. This legal repression seemed primarily to be a response to the growing visibility of young Iraqi women in particular who rebelled online against the still dominant traditional ideas in the field of sexuality and gender norms.
For example, in January 2023, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior established a committee to track “obscene and degrading” online content from popular Iraqi influencers. Among other things, a hotline was intended to ensure that “morals and family traditions” in Iraqi society are protected. In addition to Fahad, five other Iraqi online personalities were sentenced to prison terms of up to two years a month later.
Pattern of violence
The Iraqi Ministry of Interior has now launched an investigation into the circumstances of her death. The murder of Om Fahad seems to fit within a pattern of targeted violence against Iraqi influencers who push the boundaries of the prevailing conservatism around sexual morality.
In 2018, Instagram model Tara Fares, who had three million followers, was shot dead in the Iraqi capital, just like Fahad. Last year, 23-year-old Noor Alsaffar, who identified himself as a man and appeared in short Instagram and TikTok videos featuring dresses, hair and makeup styles, was also shot dead. And in February, a trans rights advocate known on social media as “Simsim” was stabbed to death in downtown Diwaniyah.
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