Om Fahad, an Iraqi TikTok star, was shot useless in a late-night assault exterior her dwelling in japanese Baghdad's Zoyouna district, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday. Based on surveillance digicam footage from the incident website, the viral creator of the brief video-making platform Tiktok was shot down by an unidentified assailant who arrived on a motorcycle wearing darkish clothes and a helmet, acquired off the motorcycle, walked in the direction of a black SUV, and shot Om Fahad, who was sitting inside.
Based on Al Jazeera, the Ministry of Inside introduced the formation of a group to research the circumstances surrounding the killing.
Iraqi social media star 'Influencer' Om Fahad has been assassinated by Iranian militias of the Hashd Al Shaabi (PMF) immediately in Baghdad (Iraq).
She didn't interact in politics or related however was usually attacked by these factions for her ‚liberal life-style'
Enraging: her social… pic.twitter.com/6nOGV5twZL— ScharoMaroof (@ScharoMaroof) April 26, 2024
Who Was Iraqi Social Media Influencer Om Fahad?
With nearly half one million followers on TikTok, Om Fahad—actual title: Ghufran Sawadi—turned well-known for posting movies of herself dancing to pop music.
A courtroom present in February 2023 that she had posted movies that included “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality” and sentenced her to 6 months in jail. Over one million folks have watched a few of her movies.
Investigations in opposition to different on-line content material creators have been initiated, and 5 extra have been sentenced to jail phrases of as much as two years on the time. This got here after the Iraqi Inside Ministry shaped a committee in January 2023 to research “obscene and degrading content material” posted on-line by influencers akin to Om Fahad, with the acknowledged aim of defending “morals and household traditions” in society.
Moreover, an internet platform was established, in response to Al Jazeera, the place Iraqi customers have been urged to report any such content material for removing. On the time, officers asserted that tens of hundreds of studies had been registered by the general public, and that the general public had embraced the platform.
Following the ministry's crackdown, some on-line content material creators have been pressured to challenge an apology and take away parts of their work.
In a report launched final 12 months, the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor acknowledged that it couldn’t discover any motive to indict Om Fahad and that her writing didn’t transcend the bounds of her freedom of expression, opinion, and publication.
