Iraqi female TikTok star shot dead in Baghdad

Julian Bechocha

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi female social media influencer Om Fahad was shot dead by a gunman on a motorbike outside her Baghdad home on Friday. The interior ministry said it was investigating the murder. 

Om Fahad, officially Ghufran Sawadi, was assassinated by an unidentified gunman in her car, parked outside her house in Baghdad’s Zayouna neighborhood, according to Rudaw’s reporter on the ground. 

Iraq’s interior ministry said in a statement that “investigations are still ongoing and are at their beginning” regarding the murder, and that the ministry has formed “a specialized committee to find out the circumstances of the killing of a well-known woman on social media by unknown assailants.” 

Om Fahad earned tens of thousands of followers on TikTok for posting videos of herself in tight-fitted clothing dancing to Iraqi and pop music. In February 2023, she was sentenced to six months in prison for “undermining modesty and public morality,” according to the court ruling. 

Footage of her assassination quickly circulated on social media sites. 



In March, Iraq’s communications minister announced plans to ban TikTok – used by millions in Iraq – for aiding in “dismantling the Iraqi social fabric.” The app has repeatedly drawn controversy from parts of Iraq’s conservative population, who have accused it of ruining the country’s social fabric and having a detrimental impact on its young people.

Women in conservative Iraq have been victims of sectarian religious conflicts, Islamic law, cultural traditions, and even the Iraqi constitution itself. Those with a large social media following are frequently threatened for damaging the society’s “honor” and little is done to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to justice.

In 2018, well-known Iraqi model and influencer Tara Fares was gunned down in Baghdad, during a time when a string of women murders struck the country.