A well known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot {dead} in her automobile by a gunman on a motorcycle.
Om Fahad, whose actual identify is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed exterior her residence in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, in keeping with the AFP information company, citing safety officers.
It seems the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering meals to the sufferer, one safety supply stated.
Om Fahad, who has almost half 1,000,000 TikTok followers, grew to become well-known for posting light-hearted movies the place she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days in the past, she shared footage of herself driving in a automobile and likewise posing in entrance of a mirror. They’ve every been watched lots of of hundreds of occasions.
The influencer was sentenced to 6 months in jail in February final yr for sharing movies {that a} court docket dominated contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A marketing campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi authorities to clamp down on social media content material which broke the nation’s “morals and traditions”.
The inside ministry arrange a committee to search for “offensive” clips on platforms resembling TikTok and YouTube, with a number of influencers being arrested.
“This sort of content material isn’t any much less harmful than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which requested the general public to assist by reporting such content material.
“It is without doubt one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi household and society.”
Talking final yr, inside ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality marketing campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot {dead} Tara Fares, who was a mannequin and influencer.
After years of battle and sectarian battle following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality regardless of sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
However civil liberties, notably amongst girls and sexual minorities, are nonetheless constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.