The death of a 22-year-old YouTube star by her father has sparked outrage in Iraq, a conservative country where so-called “honour killings” continue to occur.
The female YouTuber was strangled by her father on 31 January, in a killing that has outraged the conservative country.
Iraqi activists took to the streets on Sunday to protest her killing and demand a law against domestic violence.
Tiba al-Ali, 22, was killed by her father on 31 January in the southern province of Diwaniyah, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said on Twitter on Friday.
It was gathered that Al-Ali went to Turkey in 2017 with her family, but when they came back, she declined to go with them and rather stay in Turkey, where she has since lived.
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.
Maan said there had been an attempt to mediate between the young woman who was visiting Iraq from Turkey and her relatives to resolve a “family dispute”.
She is said to have been drugged and taken back to the family home in Al-Qadisiyyah Governorate when she agreed to meet her mother at her friend’s place and suddenly the whole family turned up.
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 Hanaa Edwar was received by a magistrate from the Supreme Judicial Council to whom she presented the protesters’ grievances.