Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, has become famous for posting lighthearted videos where he dances to Iraqi music.
Saturday 27 April 2024 11:29, UK
A popular Iraqi social media influencer has been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorcycle.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed on Friday outside his home in the Zayouna district of Baghdad, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to deliver food to the victim, a security source said.
Om Fahad, who has almost half a million followers on TikTok, has become famous for posting lighthearted videos where he dances. Iraqi music
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. Each one has been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court said contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality.”
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to curb social media content that breaks the country’s “morals and traditions.”
The Ministry of the Interior has created a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organized crime,” the ministry said in a promotional video that asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
Speaking last year, the interior minister’s spokesman, Saad Maan, argued that the morality campaign had “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad gunned down Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normalcy despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption
But civil liberties, especially among women and sexual minorities, are still limited in a conservative and male-dominated society.
