Dozens of Iraqi protesters took to the streets in the central city of Diwaniyah to condemn the recent “honor killing” of Tiba Ali, a 22-year-old YouTube star who was allegedly strangled by her father on Jan 31. Ali’s death has fueled calls for reforms in Iraq’s laws that protect women from violence. According to the Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan, the father turned himself in to the police after the murder.
The protesters held banners demanding legislative reforms and condemning the killing. One of the placards read, “There is no honor in the crime of killing women.” The country’s current penal code, Article 41, allows husbands to “discipline” their wives, including beatings, and Article 409 reduces murder sentences for men who kill their wives or female relatives because of adultery to up to three years in prison.
Activists and women’s rights groups have urged the authorities to pass the draft law against domestic violence that has been pending in the Iraqi Parliament since 2019. Rosa al-Hamid, an activist with the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq, said, “Tiba was killed by her father under tribal justifications that are unacceptable.”
Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Aya Majzoub, said in a statement that violence against women and girls in Iraq will continue unless the authorities adopt robust legislation to protect them.
Tiba Ali had been living in Istanbul, Turkey, with her Syrian-born boyfriend, a real estate investor, and had a YouTube channel with over 20,000 subscribers. Her father reportedly did not approve of her move or her plans to marry her partner. The local community police had intervened to settle a heated dispute between Ali and her father the day before her murder.