‘Honour’ Killing Of YouTuber In Iraq Sparks Outrage, Triggers Protest Calls

Iraqi YouTuber Tiba al-Ali was allegedly killed by her own father who confessed to the act and handed himself over to the police. This incident sparked demands for new legislation to protect from violence.

New Delhi: A case of “honour” killing has sparked outrage in Iraq after a young YouTuber was killed by her father. Tiba al-Ali, aged 22, was killed by her father on January 31 in the southern province of Diwaniya, interior ministry spokesperson Saad Maan informed on Twitter on Friday.

According to the interior ministry spokesperson, police attempted to mediate between Tiba al-Ali – who lived in Turkey and was visiting Iraq – and her family to “reach appropriate solutions that satisfy everyone to resolve the family dispute permanently.”

His father was said to have been unhappy about her decision to live alone in Turkey.

The spox said that after the police’s initial meeting with the family “we were surprised the next day, when we are supposed to meet with them again, with the news of her killing at the hands of her father, as he admitted in his initial confessions”.

"He handed himself over to the police station, according to the information received, and investigations are still underway to find out the circumstances of the incident and announce it to the public," the tweet, originally written in Arabic, informed.

Tiba al-Ali's YouTube channel, where she posted vlogs of her daily life with her fiance appearing often, has over 18,000 subscribers with videos garnering over 90,000 views.

News agency AFP reported a police source as saying on condition of anonymity that the “dispute” dated back several years.

She had travelled to Turkey with her family in 2017, but she refused to return home with them and stayed in the country and lived there since, the police source said, as per AFP.

Citing purported voice recordings attributed to Ali, Human rights activist Hanaa Edwar told AFP that “she left her family … because she was sexually assaulted by her brother”.

The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights also reported the allegation.

Calls For Protests In Iraq, Demands Raised For Legislation To Protect Women 

The death has sparked uproar among people in Iraq who are taking to social media making calls for protests in Baghdad on Sunday to demand justice.

Iraqi politician Ala Talabani wrote on Twitter: “Women in our societies are hostage to backward customs due to the absence of legal deterrents and government measures – which currently are not commensurate with the size of domestic violence crimes”.

Amnesty International condemned the “horrific” killing, saying “the Iraqi penal code still treats leniently so called ‘honour crimes’ comprising violent acts such as assault and even murder”.

The organisation's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Aya Majzoub, said: “Until the Iraqi authorities adopt robust legislation to protect women and girls … we will inevitably continue to witness horrific murders.”