Murder of Eman Sami Maghdid

Eman Sami Maghdid
Born	2001 or 2002 Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq
Died	6 March 2022 Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
Cause of death	Honour killing Apostasy (Converting from Islam to Christianity)
Other names	Maria, Mari
Occupations	Social media personality, women's rights activist

On 6 March 2022, 20-year-old Kurdish TikTok personality and women's-rights activist, Eman Sami Maghdid (also transliterated Iman Sami Maghdid), known by her chosen name Maria (also spelled Mari), was killed by her brother in Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.

Kurdish and international media described her murder as an honor killing following Maghdid's conversion to Christianity and adoption of a Western lifestyle. Her family disputed that she had formally changed her religion, saying she wore a cross only as jewellery.

Maghdid's death, which became public on International Women's Day, drew condemnation from Muslim and Christian religious leaders and Kurdistan Regional Government officials, and was cited by activists and the United States Consulate General in Erbil as part of a wider pattern of violence against women in the region. In September 2022, an Erbil court convicted her brother of the murder and sentenced him to 15 years in prison, a verdict some women's rights activists criticised as too lenient.

Background

Maghdid was raised in a religiously conservative family in Erbil. Several outlets reported that her father was an imam at a local mosque. A journalist who said he had accompanied Maghdid in the last days of her life told Daraj that her father was not a cleric but worked in the vegetable trade, though he agreed her wider family held conservative religious views.

According to several reports, Maghdid was married at around age 12 in a marriage arranged by her family, and separated from her husband roughly four years later. She had previously worked at a Kurdish-language Islamic television channel under the name Eman, wearing the hijab at the time; she later left this work, stopped wearing the hijab, and became known online as an advocate for women's rights.

Public profile

Maghdid built a large following on TikTok, reported variously as between 47,000 and over 60,000 followers, where she posted content that challenged conservative social norms in Iraqi Kurdish society, including videos and photographs of herself smoking and wearing Western-style clothing. She was described by acquaintances as a committed feminist who also supported LGBT people, and had reportedly recorded an unreleased song before her death. She had received threats on social media over her activism and lifestyle before she was killed.

Religious conversion

Several English-, Arabic- and Kurdish-language outlets, along with theorganizations Middle East Concern and Open Doors, reported that Maghdid had converted from Islam to Christianity in the weeks before her death and had adopted the name Maria in connection with this; Middle East Concern reported she had been preparing for baptism. Some Arabic-language reports similarly described her as having embraced Christianity, saying the name Maria was chosen partly to leave behind the name Eman, which she associated with her earlier work for an Islamic broadcaster.

This account was disputed by some of those close to her. Her father told local media she had not changed her religion, and the chair of the Kurdistan Region's Independent Human Rights Board, Mona Yaqo, said Maghdid's father had told her Maghdid wore a cross but had not formally converted, suggesting her interest in the symbol may have been linked to the trauma of her early marriage or to her broader rejection of her community's expectations. A journalist who said he had accompanied Maghdid before her death likewise told Daraj that reports of a religious conversion were false and that her killing was unrelated to her faith.

Iraqi law permits conversion from other religions to Islam but not the reverse, a restriction Yaqo described as being at odds with the equality provisions of the Iraqi constitution. Whatever the precise facts of Maghdid's religious status, her killing was widely discussed in Kurdish public debate at the time as a punishment for apostasy from Islam.

Death

On the night of 6 March 2022, the eve of International Women's Day, Maghdid's body was found on the "100 Metre Road" in Erbil, near Erbil International Airport. Accounts of the manner of her death differ between outlets: the Kurdish outlets Rudaw and Kurdistan24, and ekurd.net, reported she had been shot, with one outlet specifying eight or nine gunshots, while AsiaNews, Open Doors and Evangelical Focus reported she had been stabbed multiple times and found bound with tape.

Erbil police said the killing followed a family dispute: Maghdid's brother had objected to her social-media activity and had gone to bring her back to the family home, and killed her when she refused to go with him. Her father gave local media a similar account, saying she had not settled at either his home or her mother's home, and that her brother reacted to her refusal to return.

Investigation and trial

Erbil police initially described the perpetrators only as unidentified assailants. Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Hogir Aziz later said the killer was Maghdid's brother, acting with an uncle who admitted involvement. The uncle was initially arrested and the vehicle used in the killing seized, while the brother fled and became the subject of an arrest warrant. On 8 March 2022 the brother reportedly admitted to killing her during a radio interview, and he was arrested the following day in Kirkuk by anti-crime police, along with a man accused of sheltering him; his uncle was later released.

Reports of the brother's age at the time of the killing varied: some outlets described him as 17, others as 18, while Kurdistan24 described him as 22 at the time of his conviction in September 2022.

On 20 September 2022, an Erbil court convicted Maghdid's brother of her murder and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Maghdid's lawyer, Haram Rafaat, said the defence had submitted 15 points to the court that were not addressed in the verdict, and said the defence suspected another person might have been involved. A number of women's rights activists said they had expected a harsher sentence, such as life imprisonment.

Reactions

Maghdid's death drew condemnation in the Kurdistan Region from Muslim and Christian religious figures and Kurdish government officials, and many of her TikTok followers expressed outrage. At the same time, some social media users in Iraqi Kurdistan defended or excused the killing, circulating older photographs of Maghdid in a hijab with comments framing her death as a consequence of leaving her faith.

Following her killing and those of other women in the region, the United States Consulate General in Erbil issued a statement expressing concern over rising violence against women in the Kurdistan Region, naming Maghdid's killing, along with those of Maryam Yacoob and Aydi Muhammed, as cases needing investigation and legal accountability.

Maghdid's case was cited by Kurdish women's rights organisations as part of a wider pattern: according to figures cited by the Kurdistan Women's Union, more than ten women and girls were killed in similar circumstances in the Kurdistan Region in the months before her death, including Doski Azad, a transgender woman shot dead by her brother weeks earlier. Kurdistan Women's Union board member Delvin Khalaf linked the killings to the continuing influence of tribal authority in the region despite government commitments to combat violence against women, while Kurdistan Parliament women's and human rights committee member Kolistan Said called for tougher penalties for "honour"-related killings.

See also

• Honor killing
• Doski Azad
• Persecution of Christians