uA famous Iraqi TikToker, sentenced last year to prison for content deemed “indecent” on social networks, was shot and killed Friday evening in Baghdad while she was in a car, two security officials said .
Followed on TikTok and Instagram by tens of thousands of Internet users, “Om Fahad” became famous in a largely conservative and patriarchal Iraq for her videos in which she often appears in tight outfits, wiggling to Iraqi music .
Friday evening, in front of her home in a central district of Baghdad, the young woman, who was in a car, was shot and killed by an unknown assailant on a motorcycle, two security officials speaking undercover told AFP. anonymity.
Sentenced to prison
In February 2023, a criminal court sentenced “Om Fahad” at first instance to six months in prison for “the publication of several videos with indecent remarks and violating public decency and morals”.
The authorities had then just launched a committee responsible for hunting down “decadent content” on social networks, going “against the morals and traditions” of Iraqi society.
To this end, a platform had been set up to allow Internet users to report these publications. Several social media stars have been sentenced to prison, or forced to apologize for content posted online, sometimes simple humorous or satirical videos.
In an Iraq ravaged by decades of conflict, still to this day plagued by the proliferation of weapons, the security forces have launched a campaign to try to recover all this arsenal in circulation.
In 2018, influencer and model Tara Farès was killed in Baghdad by several shots while she was in her white Porsche convertible with red armchairs.
