Iraqi TikTok star Umm Fahad shot dead in Baghdad

Baghdad, Iraq
CNN
—

Iraqi social media star Ghufran Sawadi, better known as Umm Fahad, was shot dead outside his home in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Friday evening, a Baghdad police source told CNN.

The attack took place in the Zayouna district, east of Baghdad, and was filmed by a surveillance camera and shared on social media. The video shows a gunman riding a motorcycle shooting and killing Sawadi on the spot. A Baghdad police source confirmed the authenticity of the video to CNN.

The country’s interior minister announced Friday that he was “forming a specialized task force to uncover the circumstances of the murder of a woman known on social media by unknown attackers.”

Sawadi was popular on TikTok, where she shared videos of herself dancing to pop music in tight clothing. In the past, these videos were deemed inappropriate by the Iraqi justice system. Sawadi was sentenced to six months in prison for “the crime of producing and publishing several films and videos containing obscene and indecent remarks, violating public modesty and morals,” said a press release from the Iraqi justice system.

Other Iraqi social media personalities have already been the target of deadly attacks.

More recently, another popular Iraqi TikTok personality, Noor Alsaffar, known as Noor BM, was shot dead in Baghdad in September 2023, an Iraqi security source told CNN at the time.

Alsaffar, who had more than 370,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, posted short videos about fashion, hair and makeup, often dancing to music.

Following news of the shooting, many posted comments lamenting Alsaffar’s death, while others applauded him, celebrating the man who fired the shot.

Alsaffar’s killing came as Iraq cracked down on LGBTQ expressions and attempted to criminalize them in law.