HONOR KILLING: YouTuber Tiba al-Ali, 22, strangled to death by her father to 'wash away shame'
DIWANIYA, IRAQ: Tiba al-Ali, a 22-year-old Youtuber, was killed by her father on January 31 in the southern province of Diwaniya, Saad Maan, a spokesman for the interior ministry, posted on Twitter on February 3. Police had tried to "resolve the family dispute in a definitive manner" between Ali, who was visiting Iraq from Turkey, and her family, according to Maan.
According to rumors, Ali's father disapproved of her choice to live alone in Turkey. Maan said that after the police’s initial encounter with the family “we were surprised the next day … with the news of her killing at the hands of her father, as he admitted in his initial confessions”.
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Ali's family kidnapped her when she came to Iraq
Ali had developed a following on YouTube, where she shared videos of her daily activities and frequently including her boyfriend. Meanwhile, a police source who spoke to AFP under the condition of anonymity said that the "dispute" had been going on for some time, as per Daily Mail.
Ali had come to Turkey in 2017 with her family, but she refused to leave the country with them, deciding instead to stay permanently, according to the police source. Apparently, there were audio recordings circulating on social media of an argument between Ali and her father where she confronted him about why she left her family to live in Turkey — she accused her brother of sexual assault. She is allegedly heard in the recordings saying, "You know what your son did to me. My brother assaulted me."
These voice recordings are the last that Tiba al-Ali managed to send her friends, before her father strangled her to death on Wednesday, after she revealed that her brother raped her in 2017.
— Megaphone (@megaphone_news) February 2, 2023
1/2#TibaAlAli #Abuse #WomensRights https://t.co/hxDsrXd7qg
However, Ali's father seemed to be upset about her decision to live alone in Turkey, according to the unreliable recordings of their discussions.
What is known for a fact is that her family kidnapped her when she went back to Iraq in January to watch her nation's football team compete in the Arabian Gulf Cup. According to local media, the influencer was shocked when her entire family showed up after agreeing to meet her mother at a friend's house in Baghdad.
She was allegedly drugged by her family before being taken to the family home in Al-Qadisiyyah Governorate. According to local media, when she woke up, she and her father had a heated argument. Later, while she was sleeping, he entered her room and strangled her to death. Unidentified in local media, her father surrendered to authorities and admitted to killing his own child to "wash away the shame."
Social media users in Iraq outraged by Tiba's death
Social media users in Iraq are outraged by her death and have called for demonstrations to demand justice in Baghdad. “Women in our societies are hostage to backward customs due to the absence of legal deterrents and government measures – which currently are not commensurate with the size of domestic violence crimes,” wrote veteran politician Ala Talabani on Twitter. Amnesty International condemned the “horrific” killing, saying “the Iraqi penal code still treats leniently so called ‘honour crimes’ comprising violent acts such as assault and even murder”.
Until the #Iraq-i authorities adopt robust legislation to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, we will inevitably continue to witness horrific murders such as that suffered by #TibaAli.https://t.co/iuit87ODOS
— Amnesty MENA (@AmnestyMENA) February 3, 2023
Although the police have currently booked Tiba's killer father for murder, under Iran's penal code, he could avoid jail time by claiming the death was an "honor killing." According to the "honor" code, courts can choose to impose light punishments on those who commit homicide out of "honorable motives" or after being provoked. A Home Office assessment on the code from March 2021 states "Article 409 of the Iraqi Penal Code permits 'honor' as a mitigation for crimes of violence committed against family members and the Code allows for lenient punishments for 'honor killings' on the grounds of provocation or if the accused had 'honourable motives'."