The assassination of the Iraq-Canadian activist Yanar Mohammed in Iraq

Yanar Mohammed was an Iraqi Canadian feminist who created and managed the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI). On 2 March 2026, Muhammed was assassinated outside her home in Baghdad by two armed men on motorcycles. Though no suspect has been arrested yet, this kind of assassination is usually conducted by Iraqi militias that are aligned to Iran like the Iraqi Hezbollah Group. Multiple organizations—including OWFI and international human‑rights coalitions—condemned the killing as an attack on Iraq’s feminist and highlighted the movement and the values of equality and freedom she championed. Her death came just days after OWFI’s annual conference, intensifying concerns that she was targeted for her activism.

Under her leadership, OWFI created Iraq’s first shelters for women fleeing honor killings and sex trafficking, eventually expanding to several safe houses across many Iraqi cities. These shelters protected hundreds of Iraqi women from violence. Based on numerous televised interviews with her and her Facebook page, Mohammed was very critical of the Iraqi government’s lack of action in protecting women’s rights especially the latest change in the Iraqi Civil Law that allowed minor girls to be married. The latter law was advocated and promoted by a number of Shiite parties and strongly backed by the militias. 

Before her death, Yanar has been negatively trolled on social media by several high profile users who are closely aligned with these militias and powerful political parties including an online TV show called Muqqas (Scissors) run by Waleed Al-Umran. The latter accused her on X (previously Twitter) on February 8, 2026 of getting massive financial support from foreign organizations to support LGBTQ causes in Iraq. Al-Umran wondered why the Iraqi government has not taken any action against her, indirectly accusing her of being a foreign agent and someone who is intentionally spreading debauchery, corruption, and prostitution in the country (Figure 1). Another X user even falsely linked Jeffery Epstein with Mohammed (Figure 2). A second high profile user called Mustapha Emad focused on the LGBTQ issue highlighted above on TikTok which also got widely shared on Instagram. Emad highlighted Yanar’s alleged suspicious activities merely because of securing the safety of some Iraqi women and girls facing domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation (Figure 3). He accused her of “brainwashing” women’s minds in her “illegal” activities. 

Embedded in hate disinformation, targeted reputational attacks against human rights activists, journalists, and academics are rampant in Iraq and the Middle East, some of which could lead to assassinations in a country where powerful militias and political parties operate in total impunity.