Iraqi influencer Ghufran Sawadi, better known as Umm Fahad, was shot dead outside her home in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, on Friday night (26), a Baghdad police source told CNN .
The attack took place in the Zayouna area, east of the city, and was captured on video by a surveillance camera and shared on social media.
The video shows a gunman riding a motorcycle, shooting and killing Sawadi at the scene. The source confirmed the authenticity of the video to CNN .
The country's Interior Minister announced on Friday that he would “form a specialized task team to investigate the circumstances of the murder of a woman known on social media for having unknown assailants.”
Sawadi was popular on TikTok, where she shared videos of herself dancing to pop music in tight-fitting outfits. In the past, these videos have been deemed inappropriate by Iraq's judiciary.
Sawadi was sentenced to six months in prison for “the crime of producing and publishing several films and videos containing obscene and indecent language, violating public decency and morals,” a statement from the Iraqi judiciary said.
Other Iraqi figures have been targets of attacks in the past.
More recently, another popular Iraqi TikTok figure, Noor Alsaffar, known as Noor BM, was shot dead in Baghdad in September 2023, an Iraqi security source told CNN in season.
Alsaffar, who had more than 370,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, posted short videos about fashion, hair and makeup, often also dancing.
Following news of the shooting, many posted comments mourning Alsaffar's death, though others applauded, celebrating the man who fired the shot.
Alsaffar's death came at a time when Iraq was cracking down on LGBTQ expression and trying to legally criminalize it.
Source: CNN Brasil
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