A popular Iraqi TikTok influencer who was once imprisoned after she posted videos of herself dancing to Iraqi music and enjoying pop culture was gunned down outside of her home Friday night, the Washington Post reports. Ghufran Sawadi, known online as Om Fahad, was sitting in an SUV outside her home when a man on a motorbike rode up and fired multiple shots, killing her.
Fahad became a cultural lightning rod in the debate in Iraq between traditional Muslim mores and modern life, culture and technology when she was one of a half dozen social media influencers to get jail terms–between six months and two years–after the government determined her posts were “offending morals and public decency.” Some creators were forced to remove content and post public apologies.
This isn’t the first time a social media creator was killed after an Iraqi government crackdown on online content. After similar labeling by the Iraqi government in 2018, Iraqi model and influencer Tara Fares was shot and killed while sitting in her car in Baghdad in the middle of the day.