An Iraqi social media influencer was fatally shot outside her Baghdad home, a little more than a year after being sentenced to six months in prison for posting videos that the government found offensive.
The victim, known as Om Fahad, was killed Friday night by an unidentified assailant on a motorcycle who apparently posed as a food delivery worker, Iraqi security officials told AFP.
Surveillance video broadcast on Iraqi TV showed the killer firing into a black SUV in which Fahad was sitting, the Washington Post reported.
The shooter reportedly ran off after the deadly attack.
Fahad, whose legal name is Ghufran Sawadi, had nearly 500,000 followers on TikTok, where she posted clips of herself dancing to Iraqi music in tight-fitting clothes and going about her daily life.
In February 2023, she was among six Iraqis who received months-long prison sentences following a government crackdown on social media content that officials said violated Iraqi "morals and traditions."
The move included creation of a website for people to report content they found offensive.
Fahad was found guilty of posting "videos containing indecent speech that undermines modesty and public traditions," AFP said.
The human rights group Euro-Med Monitor called the convictions of Fahad and the others "extremely concerning," saying the charges against them were "vague" and didn't "justify the restriction of natural rights."
Fahad's slaying followed the fatal 2018 shooting of Iraqi model and influencer Tara Fares, who had more than 2 million followers on Instagram, the Washington Post noted
No one has been arrested in that slaying, which took place in broad daylight as Fares sat in her car in Baghdad.
