Iraqi TikTok star Om Fahad shot dead by gunman posing as delivery driver after influencer was jailed for ‘indecent’ vids
A POPULAR Iraqi TikTok star was shot dead in her car by a gunman posing as a delivery driver, Iraqi security officials said.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad a year after she was jailed for “morality offences”.
A security source said the attacker, who arrived on a motorbike, appeared to have pretended to be making a food delivery when he gunned down the influencer.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, had become known for light-hearted videos of herself dancing to Iraqi music wearing tight-fitting clothes.
The Iraqi government launched a campaign last year to clean up social media content that it said breached Iraqi “morals and traditions”.
An interior ministry committee was established to scour TikTok, YouTube and other platforms for clips it deemed offensive.
In February 2023, Fahad was sentenced to six months in prison for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
Several other high-profile influencers have since been arrested, according to authorities.
Just days after Fahad’s sentencing, another TikTok star who goes by Assal Hossam received an even harsher sentence of two years.
Despite years of war and sectarian conflict after the US invasion in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality.
But civil liberties — for women, sexual minorities and other groups — remain constrained in the conservative society.
In eerily similar circumstances model and influencer Tara Fares, 22, was shot dead in her car by gunmen in Baghdad in 2018.
It comes as neighbouring Iran is also facing a terrifying crackdown by its brutal so-called “morality police”.
Earlier this week, it was announced that well-known Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi, 33, had been sentenced to death for supporting the anti-regime protests.
The musician had used his songs to publicly back the wave of “Women, Life, Freedom” demonstrations triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Amini died in the custody of Tehran’s morality police after being arrested for violating Iran’s hijab rules.
Salehi’s music bravely criticised the leadership of Iran, railing against their corruption and crackdowns on dissent.
He was sentenced in 2023 to six years and three months in prison, but avoided a death sentence due to a Supreme Court ruling.
But in January this year, a court in Isfahan accused him of new charges – and he has now been sentenced to be hung.