Iraqi Instagram model Tara Faris was killed by unidentified gunmen in Baghdad on Friday, according to local media reports cited by RT. Hers is the latest in a string of murders across the country targeting female activists; in each case, extremist groups are the main suspects.
She was reportedly shot and killed while in her car in a Baghdad neighborhood.
Faris, who was one of the most popular Iraqis on Instagram with 2.7 million followers, got her start as a beauty pageant contestant in 2015. She was born in 1998 to an Iraqi father and a Lebanese mother.
She had lived in Europe for a time before returning to Iraq, living in Erbil and Baghdad. Her murder is the latest in a string of assassinations which have targeted women, with some speculating that religious extremists could be behind the attacks.
Earlier this week, a female activist who helped organize protests in Iraq’s southern city of Basra was shot dead by masked gunmen.
Faris’ killing is the latest sign that – as one Twitter user put it – “women are not safe in Iraq”.
Women are not safe in Iraq, actually no one is safe in Iraq. She shouldn’t have left Kurdistan, where she previously lived a normal life.
— Axayê Kurda (@AxayeKurda) September 27, 2018
via RSS https://ift.tt/2zE2vkM Tyler Durden