He had around half a million followers on the social network TikTok. She introduced herself as “Umm Fahad”, but went by the name Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi.
Young, Iraqi from Baghdad, merely performed dances (recorded and shared) based on traditional music from that country.
On Friday night she was shot dead outside her home in Zayouna, in the east of the city. A man on a motorbike approached the vehicle in which Ghufran was traveling and shot him at close range. A tiktoker died, a friend who was with her would be injured.
The killer escaped, the crime was recorded on video surveillance cameras and the Iraqi authorities — namely the Minister of Interior, Abdul Amir al-Shammari — promised to “form a team to investigate the circumstances of the murder”.
More than a year ago, in February 2023, Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi had been sentenced to six months in prison for having, the court considered, “published several videos that included content against public morality” and would therefore be considered “inappropriate”. .
More recently, Ghufran ended up once again involved in controversy, having a blogger local, Dalia Naem, accused Ghufran of having sexual relations with senior Iraqi government officials — and promised to expose the evidence.
The case would gain media relevance and resulted in several resignations in the Ministries of Interior and Defense.
“Umm Fahad” was not, however, the first digital influencer murdered in Iraq.
In 2018, 22-year-old Tara Fares was also shot dead. In September 2023, Noor Alsaffar, who on TikTok (where she had reached 370 thousand followers) signed only “Noor BM”, also ended up shot and killed.
Recently, the Iraqi Government launched “Baligh”, which means “report” in Arabic. The authorities hope through this campaign that the population will report content on social media that “is not consistent with public morality”.
As a result of the campaign, several digital influencers ended up being persecuted and, some of them, detained.
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