Jordanian woman student shot dead as femicides outrage the region

A Jordanian woman student was shot dead at a university in Amman on Thursday, the country's public security directorate said, days after a similar murder in Egypt caused outrage across the region.

Iman Arsheed, a second-year nursing student at the Applied Sciences Private University, was shot multiple times as she left an exam, students told The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

She was rushed to hospital where she died shortly after arrival.

Students told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the suspect in the killing was not a student at the university. The security directorate said it was searching for the perpetrator, who fled from the scene of the crime.

An hour after the crime, a hashtag translating to ‘Execute the University Killer’ trended in Jordan. 

The killing comes days after Egyptian student Naira Ashraf was stabbed outside the university she attended in Mansoura, north of Cairo.

Ashraf's family told local media she had rejected multiple marriage proposals from the man who is suspected of murdering her.

In the hours after Arsheed's death, images circulated on social media of a message her killer purportedly sent to her, in which they vowed to kill her "like the Egyptian killed [Ashraf]" if she did not speak to them.

"Tomorrow I'm going to come and talk with you, and if you don’t accept I will kill you," the message read.

The New Arab could not verify the source of the message.

Soon after, the Public Security Directorate encouraged citizens to refrain from sharing "unreliable news" or information relating to the case.

"The transmission and circulation of such news has a negative impact on the victim and her family… the investigation into the case is still ongoing and the search for the killer is continuing," their statement read.

Jordan's public prosecution took matters a step further later that day, banning news and social media outlets from publishing information on the case.

The two murders in Egypt and Jordan have highlighted violence against women in the Middle East and caued outrage and shock across the region.