Iraqi activists protest after father kills YouTuber daughter

Baghdad [Iraq], February 6: Iraqi activists protested Sunday to demand a law against domestic violence, days after a YouTuber was strangled by her father in a killing that has outraged the conservative country. Tiba al-Ali, 22, was killed by her father on January 31 in the southern province of Diwaniyah, interior ministry spokesman SaadMaan said on Twitter on Friday.
Maan said there had been an attempt to mediate between the young woman and her relatives to resolve a "family dispute". The father later surrendered to the police and confessed to murdering his daughter. On Sunday, security forces prevented some 20 activists from demonstrating outside the country's Supreme Judicial Council, and they gathered instead at a road leading to the building, an AFP journalist said.
Some held placards saying "Stop killing women" and "Tiba's killer must be held to account". "We demand laws to protect women, especially laws against domestic violence," 22-year-old protester Rose Hamid told AFP. "We came here to protest against Tiba's murder and against all others. Who will be the next victim?"
Another demonstrator, Lina Ali, said: "We will keep mobilising because of rising domestic violence and killings of women." On the sidelines of Sunday's demonstration, human rights activist HanaaEdwar was received by a magistrate from the Supreme Judicial Council to whom she presented the protesters' grievances.
Tiba al-Ali had lived in Turkey since 2017 and was visiting Iraq when she was killed, a security official in Diwaniyah told AFP. In Turkey she had gained a following on YouTube, posting videos of her daily life in which her fiance often appeared.
Recordings have been shared on social media by a friend of Ali, and picked up by activists, reportedly of conversations with the father, angry because she was living in Turkey. In the recordings, she also accuses her brother of sexual harassment. AFP could not independently verify the authenticity of the voice recordings.
Meanwhile a prominent Iraqi activist campaigning for the preservation of the famed Mesopotamian marshes has been kidnapped by armed men south of the capital Baghdad, his family said Sunday. Jassim al-Assadi, 65, head of the environmental group Nature Iraq, has appeared regularly in local and foreign media to raise awareness of the threats facing the country's southern wetlands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site imperilled by years of drought.
Assadi was "driving on the highway from Hilla to Baghdad" on Wednesday morning when he was abducted, his brother Nazim told AFP. "Five kilometres (three miles) before the capital, two cars stopped him, and armed men in plain clothes handcuffed him and put him onto one of the vehicles, taking him to an unknown location," he said.
"My cousin was with him," NazimAssadi added. "They left him on the road." The family has not heard from Assadi since and police are investigating, the brother said, adding that the kidnappers had not contacted any relatives. "We need time to understand the reason. The motive isn't clear for now," NazimAssadi said. An Iraqi security official, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed to AFP that the family had reported Assadi missing.
While Iraq has regained relative stability after decades of conflict and unrest, assassinations and kidnappings of activists and officials remain common. Iraqi civil society groups have decried the continued presence of armed factions across the country and the proliferation of weapons, while tribal conflicts often lead to deadly violence. Since 2006 Assadi, a hydraulic engineer by profession, has been involved in numerous initiatives to restore the marshes, where he was born. The area had faced destruction at the hands of dictator Saddam Hussein, and has been further jeopardised by climate change.
After years of drought, winter rains this year have brought some respite to herders and livestock in the famous wetlands, which were parched and dusty last summer. The United Nations says Iraq is one of five countries most exposed to some impacts of climate change. The marshes have also been hit by reduced flows from the Tigris and Euphrates due to dams built on some rivers and tributaries in neighbouring Turkey and Iran. - AFP
Source: Kuwait Times