⁠Who was Om Fahad? Iraqi TikTok star shot dead in Baghdad

Om Fahad, a popular social media influencer from Iraq, was recently shot dead by a man on a motorbike. As per The Guardian, the incident took place when Om Fahad was in her car in the Zayouna District of Baghdad, Iraq.

The incident took place on Friday, April 26, 2024. Security officials confirmed the news of Fahad being shot and revealed that the shooter pretended to be making a food delivery guy before he shot the TikToker. The officials also claimed that Om Fahad, also known as Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi, was busy on her phone when the shooting took place, and the shooter ran away with her phone.

The officials stated:

“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.”

News9Live also reported about witnesses describing the scene and stated that a neighbor claimed they heard the gunshots, and found Fahad over the steering wheel of her car. At the moment, the Iraqi security officials have sealed off the area for further investigation.

Fahad is a well-known TikToker, who often shared videos of herself dancing to pop music. Om Fahad’s popularity can be judged by her number of followers as she had half a million people following her on the short video-sharing application.

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Om Fahad was sentenced to 6 months in prison

The reason for the shooting has not been identified or revealed by the security officials. While the TikToker is known for her videos where she often sang and danced on pop music, she was sentenced to six months of jail time in 2023, after the Iraq court charged her for “modesty and public morality.”

Fahad was arrested after the Iraqi government started a program to allegedly “clean up social media” and arrest the social media influencers who “breached Iraqi morals and traditions.”

As the influencer was often seen wearing tight body-hugging clothes and dancing in them, she was arrested, along with several other influencers.

At the time, the independent Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor released a statement, saying:

"Iraqi authorities' detention and conviction of several social media content creators on vague charges that do not justify the restriction of natural rights is extremely concerning."

At the time, Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi, along with other social media influencers was forced to apologize and take down many of their videos.

Not just her videos, Om Fahad was recently in the news for having a feud with another influencer, Dalia Naeem. The issue escalated, and divided the netizens as some sided with Fahad, while others slammed her. The fiasco happened when Naeem, AKA Iraqi Barbie, threatened Fahad of exposing her alleged relationship with a senior Iraqi official.

On the other hand, Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi is not the first influencer to be shot in recent times, as another creator, Noor Alsaffar, a 23-year-old TikToker, was also shot dead a few months back, in September 2023.

The family of the influencer has also remained tight-lipped on the matter. However, as soon as the news reached social media, the internet was flooded with tributes for the influencer.