 "Quicksplained: Who was Om Fahad, the Iraqi TikTok star shot dead in Baghdad?")
A young Iraqi social media influencer has been shot dead. As per reports, Om Fahad was killed outside her residence in Baghdad on Friday (26 April).
Fahad gained international limelight last February when a court sentenced her to jail time over “indecent” videos on social media.
Who was Om Fahad and what do we know about her death?
Who was Om Fahad?
1. Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, shot to fame in Iraq through her videos on TikTok. The light-hearted clips showed her dancing to pop music in form-hugging clothes. Her videos on the platform garnered her tens of thousands of followers, as per AFP news agency.
2. A court in Baghdad sent her to six months in prison last year for her social media videos that “undermine modesty and public morality”. A YouTuber named Hassan Sajamah was also handed a two-year prison term. Both were accused of “several videos containing indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
3. The action had come after the Iraqi government launched a government campaign in 2023 to clean up social media content that it said disregarded Iraqi “morals and traditions”, reported AFP. An interior ministry committee was set up to monitor TikTok, YouTube and other social media platforms for content that it deemed offensive. Authorities say several influencers have been arrested since then.
4. As per BBC, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor had express concern over the penal action at the time, saying: “Iraqi authorities’ detention and conviction of several social media content creators on vague charges that do not justify the restriction of natural rights is extremely concerning.”
Impact Shorts
More Shorts5. On Friday, Fahad was gunned down by an attacker on a motorbike, Iraqi security officials told AFP. She was in her car outside her home in the Zayouna district in Baghdad when the tragic incident took place. A security source told the news agency that the assailant seemed to be pretending to make a food delivery.
6. Confirming the attack, Iraq ’s interior ministry said in a statement that a “woman known on social networking sites” had been killed by “unknown assailants”. A “specialised work team” has been established to probe her death, BBC reported citing the statement. According to the Al Hurra news agency, another woman was injured in the attack.
7. Fahad was involved in a feud with fellow influencer Dalia Naeem, who had threatened to expose the former’s alleged relationship with senior Iraqi officials, as per a BBC report.
8. This is not the first murder of an influencer in Iraq. In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad had killed model and influencer Tara Fares.
9. Iraq, which was invaded by the United States in 2003, saw years of war and sectarian conflict. However, some sense of normalcy has returned to the West Asian country.
10. The conservation nation faces criticism for curtailing the civil liberties of women, sexual minorities and other groups. Speaking to AFP about the crackdown on influencers, Mustafa Saadun, of the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, had warned last year that the government was “taking the pulse” of society “before moving on to a more dangerous stage – to hold accountable all those who criticise state institutions and politicians”.
11. However, the government had rebuffed these allegations, with the Interior Ministry spokesperson Saad Maan claiming the morality campaign had “nothing to do with freedom of expression”. “We need a structure. These misguided personalities do not represent Iraqis, Iraqi women, or Iraqi society,” he had said on the Al-Rachid TV channel last year, as per AFP.
With inputs from agencies
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