Tributes are being paid to an Iraqi model and social media star who was murdered Thursday.
Tara Fares, who had almost 3 million followers on Instagram, was gunned down in Baghdad at the wheel of her car.
Iraqi model and social media star, Tara Fares, was murdered in Baghdad today wearing this same dress in the photo that she posted on her instagram account last week. She didn't see this coming... #RIP https://t.co/lRQQ9A7OWU https://t.co/npAWElGc2s
The 22-year-old, who was based in the Kurdistan region's capital, Erbil, was reportedly the sixth-most followed person on Iraqi social media — in a country known for its frequent social media bans.
Last night a black and white image was posted on her Instagram, with the caption, "We belong to God and to Him we return."
According to Maj. Gen. Saad Maan, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry of Iraq, Fares was shot at by two bikers who later fled the scene. She was taken to the Sheikh Zayed Hospital in the Karrada district in Baghdad.
Fares is the second prominent Iraqi woman killed this week. On Sept. 25, human rights activist Soad al-Ali was shot by unidentified men as she entered her car in Basra, a region that saw massive anti-government protests this month.
Tara Fares, an Iraqi social media influencer and model was shot dead in Baghdad today. So many famous Iraqi women killed in one month. Al-Fatiha.
While Fares was not vocal about the government on her social media, her presence online was political — it claimed a space for women to be sexual in a country where the practice of forced marriages and “honor killings” are still common.
Rest in power Tara Faris, the Iraqi Instagram star gunned down on the street this morning in Baghdad Rest in power Qandeel Baloch, and all the women murdered for daring to enjoy their beauty, and to live as they chose https://t.co/Rqs11onEDr
While many people mourned her passing on Twitter, an Iraqi television presenter and Supreme Court employee tweeted that Fares was a “whore” and deserved to be killed.
Following the murder of Iraqi female model, Tara Faris, in Baghdad today, a Presenter at Iraq's state broadcaster, Al-Iraqiya, tweeted she was "a whore and deserved to be killed". Hope he is, at least, fired immediately. https://t.co/MzirAPtdon
Al-Ali and Fares are the latest Iraqi women in the public eye to die in violent or mysterious circumstances. In August, the deaths of two beauty experts, Rafeef al-Yaseri and Rasha al-Hassan, in their homes raised questions about whether high-profile Iraqi women were being targeted in planned attacks.
To all those religious iraqis out there that think iraq belongs ONLY to their religion. You want to be religious put a scarf on, pray etc, dont be Happy for the death of a girl like Tara Fares. Iraq is everyone not only for you