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

US President Joe Biden delivered an election-year toast on Saturday night at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner as protesters outside criticised his support for Israel’s war against Hamas.
Mr Biden used the annual black-tie event to chide his Republican rival Donald Trump for immaturity, poke fun at his own advanced age and take on the Washington press corps.
“Yes, age is an issue. I’m a grown man, running against a 6-year-old,” Mr Biden joked.
Mr Biden, 81, later added of former President Trump, 77: “Age is the only thing we have in common. My vice president actually endorses me.”
Mr Trump reacted to the event by calling it “really bad” in a post, on his Truth Social platform. “Crooked Joe was an absolute disaster! Doesn’t get much worse than this!” he said.
Demonstrators holding banners outside the gathering at the Washington Hilton chanted about journalists’ deaths in Gaza. Hundreds of protesters encouraged journalists to boycott the annual event and shouted down administration officials as they entered.
Mr Biden avoided the large protests at the front of the hotel by arriving through a back entrance, where he was greeted by smaller groups of protesters calling for a ceasefire.
At the century-old event, often referred to as Washington’s “nerd prom,” hundreds of journalists, politicians and celebrities rubbed elbows in a massive banquet hall.
It often features friendly jabs from the president in a closing speech that takes aim at reporters and other guests in the audience.
“I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides. I’m asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment.
Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics, and focus on what’s actually at stake,” he said.
This year, the event was hosted by Saturday Night Live cast member Colin Jost.
Grassroots movement CODEPINK marched to the venue from a nearby park. “The United States media perpetuates anti-Palestinian narratives and ignores Israeli war crimes,” the group said on its website.
A growing movement against the war in Gaza has dogged the US president this year including at a $250-per-ticket March fundraiser at New York’s Radio City Music Hall that was disrupted by protesters.
Recently, that movement has expanded to college campuses in the US, signifying a growing revolt inside the Democratic base that Mr Biden needs to defeat Mr Trump, who is now the Republican frontrunner.
Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, declined to comment on security measures for the dinner.
“The safety and security of our protectees is the U.S. Secret Service’s top priority,” said U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Alexi Worley, who declined to comment further.
Israel’s six-month old war against Hamas in Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 attack by the militant group in southern Israel, has killed more than 34,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say, and caused a humanitarian disaster for the enclave’s more than 2 million inhabitants.
The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people in Israel, and led to 253 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
The White House Correspondents Association was founded in 1914 and has held a dinner nearly every year since 1921 to celebrate the reporters who cover the presidency and raise money for scholarships.

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.