{"id":17307,"date":"2018-10-04T05:25:58","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T05:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17307"},"modified":"2018-10-04T05:25:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T05:25:58","slug":"deaths-of-instagram-model-other-women-shock-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17307","title":{"rendered":"Deaths of Instagram model, other women shock Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBAGHDAD: She was a 22-year-old former beauty queen, fashion model and social media star, whose daring outfits revealed tattoos on her arms and shoulder.<\/p>\n

\nTara Fares won fame and 2.8 million Instagram followers in conservative, Muslim-majority Iraq with outspoken opinions on personal freedom, such as: \u201cI\u2019m not doing anything in the dark like many others; everything I do is in the broad daylight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIt was also the way she died.<\/p>\n

\nLast week, she was shot and killed at the wheel of her white Porsche on a busy Baghdad street during the day, apparently by a man who leaned in briefly and opened fire before speeding away on a motorcycle with an accomplice. The killing, caught on security camera video, followed the slaying of a female activist in the southern city of Basra and the mysterious deaths of two well-known beauty experts.<\/p>\n

\nThe violence has shocked Iraq, raising fears of a return to the kind of attacks on prominent figures that plagued the country at the height of its sectarian strife.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThese harrowing crimes are worrying us,\u201d said Iraqi human rights activist Hana Adwar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere are groups that want to terrify society through the killing of popular women and activists … and to tell other women to abandon their work and stay at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIt is not clear whether the deaths of the women are connected, and reports that they knew each other could not be confirmed.<\/p>\n

\nFares, with an Iraqi father and a Lebanese mother, first became famous in 2015 when she won an unofficial Baghdad beauty pageant organized by a social club. A YouTube channel drew more than 120,000 followers in addition to those on Instagram, where she shared makeup tips.<\/p>\n

\nShe gave details of a brief marriage at 16 to an abusive husband who posted intimate photos of her on social media and took away their now three-year-old son. Fares said the experience taught her \u201cstrength … and how not to let anyone control me in anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nWhile many young Iraqis shared her videos and pictures, others criticized her lifestyle as racy and un-Islamic. She lived in Iraq\u2019s self-ruled Kurdish region with her family, visiting Baghdad from time to time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nHours after she was gunned down on Sept. 27, a video on social media showed her body being carried away by a group of young people, with her face and white shirt stained with blood. She was buried in Najaf, her grave decorated with a black-and-white photo of her, along with red plastic flowers.<\/p>\n

\nIn August, Dr. Rafeef Al-Yassiri, a plastic surgeon labeled \u201cIraq\u2019s Barbie,\u201d died under mysterious circumstances. Authorities initially called it a drug overdose but have not offered an update in over a month, leading to rumors she might have been poisoned.<\/p>\n

\nA week after her death, Rasha Al-Hassan, the owner of a well-known beauty center in Baghdad, was found dead in her home. Authorities initially said she suffered a heart attack.<\/p>\n

\nOn Sept. 25, a gunman killed Soad Al-Ali, a prominent activist in the southern city of Basra. Al-Ali had organized protests demanding better services and jobs and decried the growing influence of Iran-backed Shiite militias in the area. Police said the killing was \u201cpurely personal\u201d and had nothing to do with the protests.<\/p>\n

\nLast weekend, another former beauty queen, Shaimaa Qassim, posted a video on Instagram in which she tearfully said she had received threats through social media.<\/p>\n

\nPrime Minister Haider Abadi has ordered an investigation into what he called \u201cwell-planned kidnappings and killings.\u201d He said organized groups are \u201ccarrying out a plan to destabilize the security situation under the pretext of fighting perversion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nSecurity agencies have not yet commented on the investigation into Fares\u2019 death and no group has claimed responsibility.<\/p>\n

\nIraq once boasted a liberal society and progressive laws for women and the family, going back to the 1950s. Those gains were eroded after the 2003 US-led invasion, which toppled Saddam Hussein and led to the emergence of powerful religious parties and a rise in extremism.<\/p>\n

\nPosters on some streets, particularly near shrines, exhort women to cover their hair and wear an abaya \u2014 a long, black cloak that covers the body from shoulders to feet.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAfter the killing of Tara Fares, I feel speechless,\u201d columnist Mohammed Ghazi Al-Akhras wrote on his Facebook page. \u201cWe\u2019ve reached the moment of total anarchy. They will kill everyone they don\u2019t like… The state of death is taking shape.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAGHDAD: She was a 22-year-old former beauty queen, fashion model and social media star, whose daring outfits revealed tattoos on her arms and shoulder. Tara Fares won fame and 2.8 million Instagram followers in conservative, Muslim-majority Iraq with outspoken opinions on personal freedom, such as: \u201cI\u2019m not doing anything in the dark like many others;…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}