Dozens of Iraqi protestors gathered on Sunday to condemn the alleged “honor killing” of a 22-year-old YouTube star who was strangled by her father, fueling calls for law reforms safeguarding women.
Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan announced on Friday that Tiba Ali was murdered in the central city of Diwaniyah on January 31 by her father, who afterwards surrendered to the authorities. According to reports, Ali’s father strangled her at night while she slept.
The so-called “honor killing” was met with criticism from women’s rights groups and locals, who sounded the alarm on violence against women in Iraq and the need to alter legislation to enforce tougher sentences for offenders.
Sunday, February 5, 2023, in Diwaniya, Iraq, protesters carry a banner depicting YouTube celebrity Tiba Ali, who was recently murdered by her father. Hadi Mizban / AP
The demonstrators displayed banners that condemned the murder and demanded legislative improvements. One sign stated, “There is no honor in the crime of killing women,”
“Anyone who wants to get rid of a woman accuses her of disgracing her dignity and kills her,” protester Israa al-Salman told The Associated Press.
Some carried signs that read “Stop killing women” and “Tiba’s killer must be held to account.”
Lina Ali, another protester, stated, “We will keep mobilizing because of rising domestic violence and killings of women.”
Article 41 of the country’s penal code permits husbands to beat their spouses as “discipline” In the meantime, Article 409 decreases murder punishments for males who murder or permanently maim their wives or female relatives as a result of infidelity to a maximum of three years in jail.
Rosa al-Hamid, an activist with the Iraqi civil society organization Organization for Women’s Freedom, encouraged the government to enact a draft law against domestic violence that has languished in the Iraqi Parliament since 2019.
“Tiba was killed by her father under tribal justifications that are unacceptable,” she told the AP.
Aya Majzoub, deputy director of Amnesty International for the Middle East and North Africa, stated in a news release that violence against women and girls in Iraq will continue until “Iraqi authorities adopt robust legislation to protect women and girls from gender-based violence.”
The city police and hospital administration in Diwaniyah declined to comment to the AP on Ali’s death.
In Baghdad, Iraq, on February 5, 2023, an Iraqi female activist protests the killing of Tiba al-Ali, a 22-year-old Iraqi blogger who was murdered by her father. AHMED SAAD / REUTERS
Tiba Ali had been living in Istanbul, Turkey, and has a YouTube channel with over 20,000 subscribers recording her life there with her real estate investor partner from Syria. Ali stated in her debut November 2021 YouTube video that she traveled to Turkey to complete her schooling, but stayed because she enjoyed life there.
Her father apparently disapproved of the move and her intention to marry her lover. Maan stated that Ali and her father had a fierce argument during Ali’s visit to Iraq, and that the local community police had interfered the day before Ali’s death to help them reach a resolution.
The Iraqi NGO Support Her Organization for Women’s Rights released voice recordings that Ali allegedly transmitted to her friends the night before she was murdered. In the recording, she confronts her mother and father on her refusal to return to Iraq following her brother’s sexual assault. The tape concludes with her father screaming and striking her while she screams in agony. The Associated Press was unable to independently confirm the validity of the voice recording.
Hanaa Edwar, a human rights activist, addressed the demonstrators’ issues to a magistrate of the Supreme Judicial Council on the fringes of Sunday’s event.
In a statement released on Sunday, the United Nations mission in Iraq condemned Ali’s “abhorrent killing” and urged the Baghdad government to pass “a law that explicitly criminalizes gender-based violence”
AFP contributed to the creation of this report.
»YouTube celebrity was allegedly murdered by her father, sparking outrage«