Baghdad: Eman Sami Maghdid, a popular TikTok star and a maverick public figure in Iraq, was shot dead allegedly by her own brother, in what is reported is as an honour killing. Maghdid was killed for allegedly wearing crop tops and posting those pictures on social media platforms.
According to a report published in Metro, Maghdid, 20, was killed by her 17-year-old brother, who fired eight to nine bullets at her sister on a road in the city of Erbil on 6 March.
Maghdid, known to her 47,000 TikTok followers as Mari or Maria, had the reputation of posting ‘rebellious’ photos and videos on social media, including images of her wearing crop tops that exposed her midriff, smoking cigarettes, sporting a crucifix, and expressing opinions that did not jibe with the conventional norms in a deeply conservative Iraqi society.
It was widely believed that she was still a Muslim and had not converted to Christianity, wearing items that she did only as a fashion statement.
The rise of the Islamic State and other terror organisations had also added to the growing orthodoxy in a country where women are often treated as second-class citizens and objects of sexual lust. With Islamic fundamentalism on the rise, women are expected to adhere to regressive practices, including covering their bodies in public and not venturing out of their homes without being chaperoned by a male guardian.
It is alleged that Maghdid’s brother was unhappy with her sister defying traditional notions of what women should wear according to Islamic beliefs and choosing to wear crop tops instead. This sense of belief that her sister had flouted Islamic conventions is what fuelled her brother to kill his own sister, reports suggested.
Maghdid was not the only victim of honour killing in Iraq this year. In just over 2 months, more than 10 women have been killed in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, including the death of a 23-year-old transgender woman Doski Azad, who was also shot dead, allegedly by her brother. She constantly changed her residences for the fear of being attacked and her body was found abandoned in a ditch.