Previously Sentenced to Imprisonment for Indecent Exposure by Court
Continued Oppression of Women in Iraq, Predominantly Muslim
A shocking incident occurred where an Iraqi woman who gained popularity on TikTok was shot dead near her home, and online posts praising the shooter have also surfaced. On the 27th (local time), foreign media such as CNN and BBC reported that Iraqi influencer Gufran Sawadi was shot and killed by an assailant outside her home in Baghdad the day before.
The closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage circulating on social media shows an assailant on a motorcycle shooting Sawadi to death. A Baghdad police source confirmed to CNN, "The footage is real." The Iraqi Minister of Interior announced on the day of the incident, "A special team has been formed to investigate the situation where a woman known on social media was killed by an assailant." Sawadi, famous on social media under the name Um Fahad, became popular on TikTok and Instagram mainly for videos of herself wearing tight-fitting clothes and dancing to pop music.
Gufran Sawadi, an Iraqi influencer better known as Um Fahad, was photographed at the Basra Stadium in Iraq during a soccer match held in January 2023. [Photo by AFP·Yonhap News]
Previously, the Iraqi judiciary sentenced Sawadi to six months in prison, deeming her videos inappropriate. The Iraqi judiciary stated at the time, "She committed a crime by producing and posting videos containing obscene and vulgar language that violate public decency and morals." In Iraq, where the majority are Muslims, several social media celebrities have been attacked and killed before. In September last year, Nour Alsafar, who had 370,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, was shot dead in Baghdad. He frequently posted videos about fashion, hair, makeup, and dancing to music.
Additionally, in February last year, a famous Iraqi female YouTuber was killed by her father because she lived alone after leaving her family. The female YouTuber had briefly returned to Iraq, where her family kidnapped her and took her to their family home in Diwaniya. Her father, dissatisfied with his daughter living alone in a foreign country, killed her while she was asleep.
In February of last year, a famous female YouTuber in Iraq was killed by her father for living alone away from her family. The photo shows protesters in Iraq regarding this incident. Photo by AP·Yonhap News
The father who killed his daughter later confessed to the police, stating, "I killed my daughter to wash away the shame." When this news spread, voices criticizing honor killings in Iraq erupted both domestically and internationally. Honor killing is a vicious custom in some Islamic countries where family members such as fathers or brothers kill women for allegedly tarnishing the family's honor.
Iraqi politician Ala Talabani pointed out on Twitter, "Due to the lack of legal sanctions and government measures, women in our society are held hostage by backward customs." The human rights organization Amnesty International criticized, "Iraqi criminal law is lenient on honor killings," and warned, "If the authorities do not establish strong legislation to protect women and girls, we will continue to witness horrific murders." Nevertheless, despite such criticism, oppression against women, including honor killings, continues in Iraq.
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