Murder of prominent Iraqi blogger in Baghdad remains unsolved as unknown killer at large

Following the killing of a prominent Iraqi blogger in Baghdad just last week, the Iraqi authorities have yet to arrest the perpetrator. 

The victim, Noor Alsaffar,23-year-old, also known as Noor BM, boasted an impressive following of over 370,000 on Instagram and TikTok.

Tragically, the blogger was fatally shot by an unidentified assailant wielding a silenced pistol on 25 September in the fortified al-Mansur district of Baghdad.

Noor, who identified himself as male in his social media posts, mainly shared short videos featuring himself dressed in women's attire, complete with various hairstyles and makeup styles, often accompanied by dancing to music.

A chilling CCTV video, widely circulated on social media platforms, captures the assailant riding a delivery motorbike and carrying out the attack in broad daylight on a public street.

قتل مواطن عراقي بغض النظر عن الاسباب والحجج هو شيء يمس امن المواطنين كلهم والجريمة تبقى جريمة بغض النظر عن الاسباب والقضاء عليه، فاليوم قتلوا نور وغداً يقتلوننا جميعاً لاسباب مختلفة ما دام البلد تتحكم فيه العصابات الخارجة عن القانون.#نور_بي_ام pic.twitter.com/j4KwWUwPrc

— 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐧 (@3iy55) September 25, 2023

The New Arab contacted Major General Khaled Al-Mahna, spokesperson for Iraq's interior ministry, but he said that he had yet to see the course of the investigation on the crime as he has assumed another role within the ministry.  

"Armed groups and individuals have for decades launched attacks against people perceived as LGBT to 'discipline' any non-normativity that is expressed in Iraq. The arbitrary nature of the attacks and the fact that they occur in broad daylight in public testify to the climate of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, who know that they can literally get away with it," Rasha Younes, a senior researcher with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) LGBT Rights Program at Human Rights Watch told TNA via email.

"In this context, enacting a law that criminalises the promotion of homosexuality, same-sex relations, and the expression of transgender identity, with punishments as severe as they are despotic, only adds fuel to the fire," Younes added. 

The HRW researcher also expressed concern about the digital targeting of LGBT+ individuals in the MENA region, including Iraq, and the offline severe consequences it can have, including fatal outcomes. 

Human Rights Watch has documented cases of LGBT+ individuals in Iraq who have been targeted online with harassment and death threats, forcing them to live in constant fear, change residences, delete social media accounts, and even alter their phone numbers.

Taiba Ali, 20, an Iraqi blogger, was strangled to death by her father in February this year after returning to Iraq to watch the Gulf Cup held in the southern province of Basrah. 

 According to Iraqi activist groups, she had been living in Turkey, where she fled after being raped by her brother in 2017.

In a concerning development, the Iraqi parliament initiated the first reading in August of a bill aimed at amending the country's anti-prostitution law to criminalise homosexuality with the penalty of execution.