The short version
- Iraqi TikTok star Ghufran Sawadi, known as Om Fahad, was shot dead outside his home in Zayouna district on Friday night.
- No one has been arrested for the murder.
- Sawadi was sentenced to six months in prison last year for publishing “inappropriate” videos, after the authorities launched a campaign to clean up social media.
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The murder of the Iraqi TikTok profile was captured on video surveillance and shared on social media, writes CNN.
In the dramatic video, a man dressed in black can be seen getting off a motorcycle and walking towards a black SUV.
At the front of the car, he shoots Ghufran Sawadi, who is sitting inside.
The killing happened right outside her home in the district of Zayouna on Friday evening this week. No one has been arrested in the case.
– We will establish a separate work team to clarify the circumstances surrounding the murder of a woman who is known on social media, carried out by unknown perpetrators, says the country’s Minister of the Interior Abdul Amir Al Shammari.
Sentenced for “inappropriate” videos
Ghufran Sawadi was known as Om Fahad on TikTok, where she had over 470,000 followers.
Here she danced to pop music, among other things, and shared pictures of herself in front of the mirror. The videos caught the attention of Iraqi authorities, who called them inappropriate.
In February last year, she was sentenced to six months in prison for her activity on social media, writes the Guardian.
In a statement from the judges, it is said that she has “produced and published several films and videos with obscene language that violate public decency and morality”.
Encouraged to sign up influencers
The sentence against Om Fahad came after the Iraqi authorities in January 2023 came out and said they should clean up social media and remove content that they believe is contrary to Iraqi “morals and traditions”.
According to the Guardian, a separate working group was created to fine-tune TikTok, YouTube and other platforms for content.
Al Jazeera writes that a separate internet portal, Balgh, was also created, where the population was encouraged to report content they found inappropriate.
A total of six people, including Fahad, were sentenced to prison for this last year. Other influencers were forced to apologize and remove videos and photos, the Washington Post writes.
More murders of women
The murder of Om Fahad is not the first of its kind in Iraq.
Last September, another Iraqi TikTok personality in Iraq, Noor Alsaffar, was shot dead in Baghdad. She was 23 years old, and known as Noor BM.
In 2018, the 22-year-old model and influencer Tara Fares was shot and killed by armed men in Baghdad, in broad daylight. She had over two million followers on Instagram.
According to the Washington Post, TikTok is currently the most popular platform in Iraq.
