Shayan Ali, a female social media activist, died in a Baghdad prison after being sentenced to two years in prison by a Kirkuk court.
The family of Shayan, 35, US resident from Kirkuk, was informed of their daughter's death in prison on Wednesday October 30 evening.
"Yes, they told her family that Shayan died, but the cause is still unknown. Her body was taken to the Baghdad forensic medical examination," a source close to SHayan’s family told KirkukNow.
He stressed that his body will be taken back to Kirkuk and buried, without specifying a date.
Shayan Ali's imprisonment came after a Kirkuk court sentenced her to two years in prison on July 17, 2023, on charges of "insulting and abusing" Iraqi judges and courts.
Shayan was arrested on June 22, 2023 after she insulted the judge and the court in several videos on her Facebook account two days earlier, without naming any judge or court.
A source in the Kirkuk court told KirkukNow that Shayan's divorce case and the custody of her son have not yet been resolved.
She was arrested at the Rahimawah police station in Kirkuk before being sentenced by the Kirkuk court and transferred to the Kirkuk detention and transfer prison.
Shayan was sentenced under the Iraqi Penal Code on the complaint of two judges of the Kirkuk court for deliberately attacking another person "through an act against the law.”
The Iraqi government has not yet commented on the case.
Zhino Khalil, a women's rights activist, said in a post on Facebook that Shayan had a relationship with a Moroccan man in the United States and then returned to Kurdistan (region of Iraq KRI) and married, but occasionally had problems.
After the birth of their first child, Zhino, “Shayan had constant problems with her husband who was “violent with her, so she returned to Kurdistan with his son and lived in Sulaimaniya,” Khalil added.
“However, Shayan did not do anything that would separate her son Shadi from his father and not recognize him, so she asked her husband to visit Kurdistan to see his son.”
“When he came to Kurdistan, he asked her to take Shad to Morocco temporarily because he returned to live there after her divorce from Shayan,” Khalil said.
“She traveled several times to the United States, Iraq and Morocco to get her son back, but no law could get her back her son, so she began to criticize the Iraqi authorities and laws.”
Shayan has posted several videos on his Facebook criticizing racial and ethnic discrimination. She also posted several videos at checkpoints arguing with the security forces which went viral on social networks.
