Tara Fares
Born(1996-01-10)January 10, 1996
Baghdad, Ba'athist Iraq
DiedSeptember 27, 2018(2018-09-27) (aged 22)
Baghdad, Iraq
Occupation(s)Model, social activist, Internet celebrity
SpouseDivorced
Children1
Beauty pageant titleholder
TitleMiss Baghdad
Years active2014–2018
Hair colorBlack
Eye colorBrown

Tara Fares (Arabic: تارة فارس; 10 January 1996 – 27 September 2018) was an Iraqi model, beauty blogger and Instagram star.[1]

Biography

Fares was born in Baghdad, her father is an Iraqi Christian and her mother a Lebanese Shiite.

Fares was forced to get married at the age of 16. She later said that her husband had been abusive.[1] She recounted years after getting pregnant at age 17 of her forced marriage. Her pregnancy was concealed by her parents who then found another family for her.[1]

In 2013, Fares was voted beauty queen of Baghdad[2] and went on to compete in the Miss Iraq competition, where she was a runner-up.[3][4]

Fares had a large following on social media site Instagram, with 2.7 million followers at the time of her death.[5]

In July 2018, Fares said in a post on Instagram, "It does not frighten me that there are those who reject the existence of God. What really frightens me is there are those who kill and slaughter to prove the existence of God." After her death this post was widely shared by her followers.[6]

Death

On 27 September 2018, she was shot three times by an unknown gunman in Baghdad while driving her Porsche Boxster convertible.[7] She was taken to hospital, where she died.[6] Iraq's Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji stated that those responsible for her murder were members of "an extremist Shiite group" who had received dishonourable discharges from different armed factions.[8] However, the names of any suspects had still not been released as of October 2020.[1]

Numerous conspiracy theories have circulated about her death.[6] Many people reject the government’s reason and blame the murder on the young woman's freedom, which bothered many extremist militias. The exhibition of her tattoos and her naked photos on her social networks have always been taken for provocation by religious population.

Her death was followed by numerous death threats against other Iraqi social media stars, with the same lifestyle as Tara.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "The murder of an Instagram star". BBC News. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  2. ↑ Clifton, Katy (1 October 2018). "Former Miss Iraq sent text saying 'you're next' after model shot dead". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  3. ↑ Mackintosh, Eliza; Alkhshali, Hamdi; Tawfeeq, Mohammed (4 October 2018). "Social media star, a former 'Miss Baghdad,' shot dead". CNN. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  4. ↑ Fletcher, Lily (1 November 2018). "Tara Fares: Iraqi social media star who attacked those who 'chop off heads to prove there is a God'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-26. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  5. ↑ Crabapple, Molly (1 November 2018). "The Girl Who Seized the Internet". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  6. 1 2 3 Al-Lami, Mina (30 October 2018). "Instagram Famous: How Dangerous Can It Be". Beyond Today. 18 minutes in. BBC. Radio 4. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  7. ↑ Sanchez, Raf (28 September 2018). "Iraqi model Tara Fares murdered as she drove through Baghdad". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  8. ↑ Sulaivany, Karzan (7 October 2018). "Extremist group responsible for Tara Fares' death: Iraqi Interior Minister". Kurdistan24. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
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