Iraqi TikTok star Umm Fahad was shot dead in Baghdad

Baghdad, Iraq
CNN
—

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

The attack occurred in the Zayouna area, east of Baghdad, and was captured on video by a surveillance camera and shared on social media. The video shows a gunman on 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 on Friday that he would “form a specialized working team to find out the circumstances surrounding the murder of a woman known on social media by unknown assailants.”

Sawadi was popular on TikTok, where she shared videos of herself dancing to pop music in figure-hugging clothing. In the past, these videos have been deemed inappropriate by the Iraqi judiciary. Sawadi was sentenced to six months in prison for “the crime of producing and publishing several films and videos containing obscene and indecent language that violate public decency and morals,” an Iraqi judiciary statement said.

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

Most 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 over 370,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, posted short videos about fashion, hair and makeup and often danced to music.

Following news of the shooting, many posted comments lamenting Alsaffar's death, while others applauded and celebrated the man who fired the shot.

Alsaffar's killing came as Iraq cracked down on LGBTQ expression, criminalizing it by law.