Iraqi authorities on Saturday were investigating the killing of a well-known social media influencer, who was shot by an armed motorcyclist in front of her home in central Baghdad.
Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi, known as Um Fahad or “mother of Fahad,” was popular on the social media sites TikTok and Instagram, where she posted videos of herself dancing to music and was followed by tens of thousands of users.
An Iraqi security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said the assailant opened fire as Sawadi parked her Cadillac in front of her house on Friday, killing her, then took her phone and fled the scene.
Iraqi TikTok celebrity Um Fahed is pictured at the Basra International Stadium during a match of the Arabian Gulf Cup football tournament on January 19, 2023.
The killing took place in Zayoona, the same neighborhood where a prominent Iraqi researcher and security expert Hisham al-Hashimi was gunned down in 2020.
Before the U.S. invasion of 2003, the neighborhood was home to military leaders and considered a prestigious area in Baghdad. In recent years, many militia leaders have taken up residence there.
Sawadi isn’t the first prominent social media figure to be gunned down in central Baghdad. Last year, Noor Alsaffar or “Noor BM,” a transgender person with a large social media following, was also fatally shot in the city.
A neighbor of Sawadi who identified himself only by his nickname, Abu Adam or “father of Adam,” said he came out to the street after hearing two shots fired and saw “the car’s door open and she was lying on the steering wheel.”
“The woman who was with her (in the car) escaped, and security forces came and sealed off the entire area, and they took the victim’s body and towed her car,” he said.
In Iraq, the role of social media influencers has broadened from promoting beauty products and clothing to government projects and programs. Official government invitations classify these influencers as key business figures at sports, security and cultural gatherings.
Videos featuring a prominent influencer during the 93rd anniversary on Thursday of the Iraqi air force’s founding sparked a backlash, with many criticizing the Ministry of Defense for allowing them to record and publish videos from sensitive military sites.
The ministry defended itself, saying that in the era of social media, like defense ministries worldwide, it uses influencers alongside traditional media to communicate with the public.
Last year, an Iraqi court sentenced Sawadi to six months in prison for posting several films and videos containing obscene statements and indecent public behavior on social media as part of a recent push by the Iraqi government to police morals.
Separately on Saturday, the Iraqi parliament passed an amendment to the country’s prostitution law — widely criticized by human rights groups — that would punish same-sex relations with a prison term ranging from 10 to 15 year A previous version of the law would have imposed the death penalty.
The law also bans any organization that promotes “sexual deviancy,” imposing a sentence of at least seven years and a fine of no less than 10 million dinars (about $7,600).

By: King Onunwor

Police detained nearly 200 people at three US universities at the weekend as they cleared pro-Palestinian encampments, in the latest campus clashes triggered by protests over Israel’s war against Hamas.
On the East Coast, police in Boston detained about 100 people while clearing a protest camp at Northeastern University, with social media posts showing security forces in riot gear and officers loading tents onto the back of a truck.
The action was taken after some protesters resorted to “virulent anti-Semitic slurs, including ‘Kill the Jews,’” Northeastern University said in a statement on social media platform X.
On the opposite side of the country, Arizona State University police arrested 69 people for trespassing after the group set up an “unauthorized encampment” on campus.
Arizona State officials said a protest group — “most of whom were not ASU students, faculty or staff” — had set up a camp Friday and then ignored repeated orders to disperse.
And in the US heartland, police at Indiana University arrested 23 people as they cleared a campus protest camp, the Indiana Daily Student newspaper reported.
Police with shields, batons and other riot gear broke through a line of protesters who had linked arms, tackling those who did not move, the paper said.
The campus activists are calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas, as well as for colleges to sever ties with the country and with companies they say profit from the conflict.
The protests have posed a major challenge to university administrators who are trying to balance commitments to free expression with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism and hate speech.
Police have carried out large-scale arrests at universities in recent days, at times using chemical irritants and tasers to disperse demonstrators.
In a statement on X, Northeastern said the area on campus where the protests were held was now “fully secured” and “all campus operations have returned to normal.”
The school said it made the move after “what began as a student demonstration two days ago was infiltrated by professional organizers with no affiliation to Northeastern.”
It added that detained individuals who produced a valid school ID have been released and will face disciplinary proceedings, not legal action.
“Those who refused to disclose their affiliation were arrested,” the school said.
‘Zionists don’t deserve to live’
Dozens of students remained encamped Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania, despite the college president ordering disbandment after what he said were “credible reports of harassing and intimidating conduct.”
Meanwhile, Columbia University in New York, where the protests originated, was relatively calm. Officials there announced Friday that they would not be calling police back to campus after more than 100 people were arrested last week.
“To bring back the NYPD at this time would be counterproductive, further inflaming what is happening on campus, and drawing thousands to our doorstep who would threaten our community,” school leaders said in a statement, referring to the New York Police Department.
The decision was made even as Columbia signaled it had barred from campus Khymani James, a leader of the campus protests who had said in a video in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
“Chants, signs, taunts and social media posts from our own students that mock and threaten to ‘kill’ Jewish people are totally unacceptable, and Columbia students who are involved in such incidents will be held accountable,” the school said.
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt announced it was closing campus until the end of the semester, with instruction and work continuing remotely after protesters repeatedly attempted to “break into multiple locked buildings with the intention of either locking themselves in, vandalizing or stealing equipment.”
Canada saw its first campus protest camp spring up Saturday at McGill University. The school in Montreal said such encampments, which are not permitted, increase “the potential for escalation and confrontation, as we have seen at some colleges throughout the US.”
Hamas staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Palestinian group Hamas also took roughly 250 people hostage. Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

Security was tight around a military base in south-western Cambodia yesterday, a day after a huge explosion there killed 20 soldiers, wounded others and damaged nearby houses.
Guards sought to keep media away from the site in Kompong Speu province.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said in a Facebook post on Saturday that he was “deeply shocked” when he received the news of the blast in the province’s Chbar Mon district. It was not immediately clear what caused it.
Images from the scene showed several badly damaged buildings on the base, at least one with its roof blown off, and soldiers receiving treatment in a hospital. Other photos showed nearby houses with holes in their roofs.
Four buildings three for storage and one work facility were destroyed and several military vehicles damaged, Col Youeng Sokhon, an army officer at the site, said.
He added that 25 villagers’ homes were damaged as well. Photos of the base showed the damaged structures in a large field, apparently with no civilian structures close by.
Another villager, who asked to be named only as Sophal, told AP he had heard a sharp sound, and when he saw smoke rising from the direction of the army base, he realised it was an explosion at the arms depot.
He then ran back to his house from the small shop where he sells food and drink to shelter inside with his wife and two children.
He said the military immediately closed the road to the base and “villagers were in a panic, seeking a safe place”.
He then moved his family to his parent’s home, farther away from the base.
When he returned to his own house hours later, he found it undamaged but other villagers’ houses had broken windows, doors and roofs, he said.
Cambodia, like many countries in the region, has been suffering from an extended heat wave, and the province where the blast took place registered a high of 39C on Saturday.
While high temperatures normally cannot detonate ammunition, they can degrade the stability of explosives over a period of time, with the risk that a single small explosion can set off a fire and a chain reaction.
Kiripost, an online English language news service, quoted villager Pheng Kimneang as saying a major explosion occurred at about 2.30pm, followed by smaller blasts for about another hour.
Hun Manet offered condolences to the soldiers’ families and promised the government would pay for their funerals and provide compensation both to those killed and those wounded.