00:00:00:07 - 00:00:03:07

Where is the freak? I need the freak.

00:00:03:11 - 00:00:05:11

Cool.

00:00:05:15 - 00:00:07:13

Oh my god.

00:00:07:17 - 00:00:13:06

Only the bravest women dare to let oneself

photograph in Sadeq's studio in Baghdad.

 

00:00:13:10 - 00:00:16:14

They are showing a lot. For them, it is a lot. 

00:00:16:18 - 00:00:18:12

Here she is.

00:00:18:16 - 00:00:22:01

His studio used to be a place,
where dreams came true -

00:00:22:05 - 00:00:27:05

- where the models felt free,

and where they dared to uncover.

00:00:27:09 - 00:00:30:09

But then one of them was murdered.

00:00:34:01 - 00:00:37:06

I want to travel.

00:00:37:09 - 00:00:40:09

I want to live my life.

00:00:40:13 - 00:00:43:08

I just want to enjoy my life.

00:00:43:12 - 00:00:47:08

 

Iraq got to know her

through the social media.

00:00:47:12 - 00:00:50:02

I am cute!

I am cute!

00:00:50:06 - 00:00:55:09

Tara was like a sister for me.

She dreamed of becoming famous.

00:00:55:13 - 00:00:59:20

Her videos made her
a Snapchat star -

00:00:59:24 - 00:01:04:24

- with more than five million followers.

She lived, as it suited her.

00:01:19:09 - 00:01:25:13

She drove in her Porsche in Baghdad,
and was shot by unknown perpetrators.

00:01:27:05 - 00:01:30:19

I am not in the neighborhood,
where Tara was killed.

00:01:30:23 - 00:01:37:01

And a white Porsche with a woman
without a hijab protrude a lot here. 

00:01:38:19 - 00:01:45:14

On video one could see, that as soon
she turned down Ahmed’s street

00:01:45:18 - 00:01:50:09

- a man stepped forward

and shot her and threw off.

00:01:50:13 - 00:01:55:22

But they did not publish
the whole video, I don’t know why.

00:01:56:01 - 00:02:02:21

When Ahmed heard the shots,
he ran out immediately.

00:02:03:00 - 00:02:06:00
When he saw Tara’s car, he knew -

00:02:06:04 - 00:02:09:18

- that the shots were intended for Tara.

00:02:10:16 - 00:02:14:11

The killing of Tara Fares,
and other famous women -

00:02:14:15 - 00:02:18:20

- has sent a rush
trough Iraq’s young girls’ mind.

00:02:18:24 - 00:02:25:08

Can one be killed in daylight?
Because you appear on social media?

00:02:28:11 - 00:02:33:17

My dream is to spread positive energy
among all people.

00:02:35:02 - 00:02:40:12

Without communicating it is difficult
to succeed, especially for young girls.

00:02:42:00 - 00:02:44:07

Maram Odey is 15 years old.

00:02:44:11 - 00:02:50:15

“Volleyball player, model,
cat woman, make-up artist and blogger”

00:02:50:19 - 00:02:56:00

The secret is to blend it
right. It takes several hours.

00:02:58:15 - 00:03:04:00

When I look around in Iraq,

I do not see a young generation -

 

00:03:04:04 - 00:03:09:06

- who just follow their dreams

and their aspirations and desires.

 

00:03:09:10 - 00:03:14:13

So I have been thinking that when I
grow older, I will write a book -

00:03:14:17 - 00:03:19:19

- with the title:

"Teenager in a tough time”

00:03:19:23 - 00:03:25:02
I am a powerful girl
with big dreams.

00:03:25:06 - 00:03:30:04

She just wants to learn and learn,

as much as she can.

 

00:03:31:12 - 00:03:34:19

Maroma? Hello!  

00:03:34:23 - 00:03:39:01

Are you busy?

I just take some quick pictures.

 

00:03:39:24 - 00:03:45:21

I am Sadeq. I am a visual artist. I am
living in Baghdad, Iraq. Welcome to my world.

00:03:46:00 - 00:03:52:10
Maram is one of the models,

Sadeq will cast for a commercial.

00:03:52:14 - 00:03:57:23

His world is also her world,
where she live out her girl dreams.

00:03:58:02 - 00:04:02:06
- Okay, but …

- What do you think of the test print?

 

00:04:04:05 - 00:04:09:16

There is just that with the girl’s jumps.
Does it look good that they are jumping?

00:04:09:20 - 00:04:14:02
Looking away from their grin,
and their other expressions.

00:04:14:06 - 00:04:19:06
Casting models is hard as fuck.
Well, let’s go.

00:04:19:10 - 00:04:23:09
I have been working as a photographer

for three years.

00:04:23:13 - 00:04:29:12
Scrub the usual model positions.

Just be a normal girl. 

00:04:31:04 - 00:04:36:15
My work in relation to the region I am living
is very strange.

00:04:36:19 - 00:04:41:21
You take a selfie.
You just got one that makes you happy. 

00:04:44:10 - 00:04:49:06

Try to be more 'oh my god!'

A little more excitement.

00:04:49:10 - 00:04:54:21

In Maram’s family it was no matter of course
that she would pose in front of a camera.

00:04:55:00 - 00:04:58:16

Now, they are fine with that.
After a lot of struggling.

00:04:58:20 - 00:05:03:02

I have been struggling for
seven years to show up this way.   

00:05:03:06 - 00:05:06:10

- Now, I want you to jump.

- Like this?

00:05:06:14 - 00:05:09:01

One, two, three …

00:05:10:15 - 00:05:16:24
Beautiful, but what about a jump of exultation,
as if you just graduated?

 

00:05:18:00 - 00:05:21:15
But students in Iraq
end up as unemployed.

00:05:21:19 - 00:05:24:06

Three, two, one …

00:05:24:10 - 00:05:26:06

Cool.

00:05:32:11 - 00:05:36:14
In the main city of Kurds, Erbil
in northern Iraq -

00:05:36:18 - 00:05:41:24
Tara Fares’ friend is in fear,
alone with the only the memory of Tara -

00:05:42:03 - 00:05:47:11

- and her orange diary, in which
she described a different girl life.

00:05:47:15 - 00:05:54:12
Here Tara tells about her dreams,
which she unfortunately never got fulfilled.

00:05:56:14 - 00:06:02:16
She wanted to replace the car
and start her own project -

00:06:02:20 - 00:06:08:21

- so she could get an income
and support herself and her family.

00:06:09:00 - 00:06:12:15
She didn’t want to be dependent on anyone.

00:06:13:21 - 00:06:16:11

Sorry, I can’t.

00:06:17:14 - 00:06:20:02

Tara wanted to be independent of men.

00:06:20:06 - 00:06:26:01
Before becoming 18, she was forced into marriage,
a marriage she later broke out.

00:06:26:05 - 00:06:29:14
Safe me from myself …

00:06:39:10 - 00:06:42:21
She broke with the
widespread view on women.

00:06:43:00 - 00:06:46:13
In the environment she came in,

alcohol and drugs floats -

00:06:46:17 - 00:06:52:10
- and many have a sugar daddy, who

pay the bill in exchange for sexual services.

00:06:52:14 - 00:06:58:11

The killing of Tara has affected me
and our close friends deeply.

00:06:58:15 - 00:07:04:14

Many of them are known
just as Tara.

00:07:04:18 - 00:07:14:04
And they have all received threats

on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook -

00:07:14:08 - 00:07:18:15

- with the message:
“Your turn is coming soon.”

00:07:18:19 - 00:07:23:05

Iraqi women are most often covered
and adapted to a kitchen.

00:07:23:09 - 00:07:29:05
But at Sadeq’s the models redefine,
how young girls’ life should be.

00:07:29:09 - 00:07:35:21
If I had a very restricted family,

I wouldn’t be able to do anything.

00:07:36:00 - 00:07:39:12
One year ago I saw a blog

and thought -

 

00:07:39:16 - 00:07:43:19

- how can they be like this?
I just want to be like this.

00:07:43:23 - 00:07:48:12

My family didn’t understand this, but my mom did.
And she made me take of the hijab.

00:07:48:16 - 00:07:56:22

I always think of the next of what I am doing,

because I keep thinking of what people might say to my family.

00:07:57:01 - 00:08:01:02

- She is free, but she is not in the same time.

- Yeah, exactly.

00:08:01:06 - 00:08:05:22
You are the young generation,

so you are also supposed to push the boundaries -

00:08:06:01 - 00:08:11:07

- Because that’s what young generations do.

- Yeah, but we can’t do that.

 

00:08:11:11 - 00:08:16:09
If we pushes to hard,
we will either be killed or …

00:08:16:13 - 00:08:22:17
Since the US invasion in 2003 Iraq has
been characterized by bloody conflicts.

00:08:22:21 - 00:08:28:23

Hundreds of thousands are killed and cities
is in ruins in the war against IS.

00:08:29:02 - 00:08:36:06

Women’s rights drown in a society
marked by terror, militias and hate -

00:08:36:10 - 00:08:40:20
- where it is easier to get away
with murder than to open a company.

00:08:40:24 - 00:08:47:04
However, the Killing of Tara Fares has forced its way
through the sound barrier and has aroused attention.
 

00:08:47:08 - 00:08:51:07
After Tara was gone, people came to me
telling me to leave Baghdad -

00:08:51:11 - 00:08:57:20
- because I was within a list,
that I am being targeted.

00:08:57:24 - 00:09:02:03
For a month I did not leave home. 

00:09:02:07 - 00:09:06:24
Nothing happened or anything.

00:09:07:03 - 00:09:10:05

What about these ones?

00:09:11:05 - 00:09:14:08

Sadeq and Tiba is at
a fair in Baghdad -

00:09:14:12 - 00:09:20:10
- to find jewelry and knick-knack
for the costumes he designs.

00:09:20:14 - 00:09:24:10

Before Tara’s death, I believed
that there was hope.

00:09:24:14 - 00:09:27:15

People had started
to become more freely and open minded. 

00:09:27:19 - 00:09:32:20
And then Tara’s death happen, and it
is like we stepped back a thousand steps.

 

00:09:32:24 - 00:09:38:11
One time I got injured by a rock,
which flew from a car.

00:09:38:15 - 00:09:45:12
At that time I was afraid.
So yeah, that is what we are dealing with here.

00:09:45:16 - 00:09:49:04

What about the yellow over there?
Do you see it?

00:09:49:08 - 00:09:53:05
- The one with flowers?
- No, the yellow one. It’s pretty.

00:09:53:09 - 00:09:56:01
No, it’s way too big.

00:09:56:05 - 00:10:00:17
It comes with two belts,
one before dinner and one for after.

00:10:00:21 - 00:10:02:14
We’ll take a small.

00:10:02:18 - 00:10:08:02
Sadeq has found clothes and jewelry
for a mask he is working on at home.

00:10:08:06 - 00:10:13:20
I use mask and face covering and

‘haute couture’ – let’s call it like that -

00:10:13:24 - 00:10:20:13

- to just impersonate a character.

00:10:20:17 - 00:10:29:00

It is a way of creating a character or
sending a massage or creating art.
 

00:10:36:11 - 00:10:44:20
Then we are going to attach them
into this sunglasses.

00:10:53:24 - 00:10:56:20

This goes here.

00:10:56:24 - 00:11:00:18

Just by taking pictures with
this type of clothes -

00:11:00:22 - 00:11:05:00
- I consider them very brave.

It is very expressive.

00:11:05:04 - 00:11:10:00

They should be roles models for girls here,
because they are not selling their body.

00:11:10:04 - 00:11:16:05
They are selling art. They are selling
a character or a piece.

00:11:16:09 - 00:11:22:02

It’s not about just selling your body to people,
selling sex or something like that.

00:11:22:06 - 00:11:26:23
I really like it.
I have just become more excited about today.

00:11:29:21 - 00:11:35:09
One time I did a photoshoot for myself,
because no one accepted to do it.

00:11:35:13 - 00:11:38:20

I impersonated a demon.

00:11:38:24 - 00:11:43:11
No one knew it was me,
before I told them it was me.

00:11:43:15 - 00:11:48:03
They said: “No, it’s the Devil.
You are impersonating the Devil.”

00:11:48:07 - 00:11:50:04

So this is me.

00:11:50:08 - 00:11:54:07
Why would nobody want to
be for that, you think?

00:11:54:11 - 00:11:59:18
Because for boys …
Oh, we are going somewhere.

00:11:59:22 - 00:12:02:00

A big way.

00:12:02:04 - 00:12:07:08

For boys, first they are afraid that their friends
will talk bad things about them -

00:12:07:12 - 00:12:10:13

- or that they will be called as gays.

00:12:10:17 - 00:12:15:18

And is just limited,
what we have done here.

00:12:15:22 - 00:12:18:20

But we are doing more.

00:12:18:24 - 00:12:21:17
We hope, nobody is killed the next days.

00:12:29:13 - 00:12:33:14
Where is my mom?
Mom, come here.

00:12:33:18 - 00:12:38:12

Maram is dragging her mother
for an important event.

00:12:38:16 - 00:12:45:12

The first demonstrations for years
against the widespread “honor killings” in Iraq.

00:12:45:16 - 00:12:49:20
Do you have “The Da Vinci Code”?

How much?

00:12:49:24 - 00:12:55:17

The demonstration’s at the book market
in Baghdad’s legendary Mutanabbi.

00:12:55:21 - 00:13:01:24

“I want to kill a man”.

You kill him by educating.

00:13:04:06 - 00:13:07:10
I find the organizer
of the demonstration, Mohammed Ali -

00:13:07:14 - 00:13:12:23
- who has been a lawyer for women
in Iraqi courts for 12 years.

00:13:13:02 - 00:13:16:03
Why are you having the demonstration now?

00:13:16:07 - 00:13:23:07
After a couple few months,
many murder crimes happened to girls.

00:13:23:11 - 00:13:27:00

Tara Fares and other and other.

00:13:27:04 - 00:13:30:20

Many famous girls were murdered -

00:13:30:24 - 00:13:35:24

- and also many unknown girls were murdered
and nobody knows about them.

00:13:38:02 - 00:13:44:09

He speaks of bitter experience when he
mention the cause of killing women.

00:13:45:10 - 00:13:50:22
The problem in the law protection women,

it is not really protecting them.

00:13:51:01 - 00:13:56:19

That is the whole problem here.

Girls under age are being forced to marry.

00:13:56:23 - 00:14:01:14
If they don’t get marry, they will be killed,

so they are forced to get married.

00:14:01:18 - 00:14:09:10

We have a law that says everyone,
who forces a girl to get married, will go to jail. 

00:14:09:14 - 00:14:14:11
But the whole issue is,

she cannot go to court. 

 

00:14:15:20 - 00:14:20:04
Her parents are against her.
The whole society is against her.

00:14:20:08 - 00:14:23:07
So can’t go to court and say ‘I am forced to get married’

00:14:23:11 - 00:14:29:14
So, what is the use of the law,
if the law don’t protect the girl to go to the court?

00:14:29:18 - 00:14:33:08

Right now, there is a lot of attention.

00:14:33:12 - 00:14:38:19
But do you feel the society have enough
attention towards women’s rights? In particularly the men.

00:14:38:23 - 00:14:42:12

No.
Sorry, but no.

00:14:42:16 - 00:14:46:19
There is not enough attention against what is happening.

00:14:46:23 - 00:14:52:17
Many men don’t have obvious education

about women’s rights.

00:14:52:21 - 00:14:58:12
Many men ‘till now still believe,

that the women have to be in the kitchen.

00:14:58:16 - 00:15:02:10

The men surrounding us want
to discuss the war -

00:15:02:14 - 00:15:05:20
- and the US invasion of Iraq

15 years ago.

00:15:05:24 - 00:15:11:16
But this is not our topic today, sir.

Our topic today is the ladies… not the war.

00:15:11:20 - 00:15:15:12

Killing women is unacceptable!

00:15:15:16 - 00:15:19:10
Mohammed is trying to
call out the men -

00:15:19:14 - 00:15:24:05

- when the murder of Tara Fares
suddenly takes over the agenda.

00:15:24:09 - 00:15:29:19
Our society cannot possibly develop,

when we still kill women.

00:15:29:23 - 00:15:34:16
- Why was Tara Fares murdered?

- Nobody knows.

00:15:34:20 - 00:15:38:07

Do you know? Do you know?

00:15:38:11 - 00:15:42:09

- Ask the Minister of the Interior

- Tara Fares ...

00:15:42:13 - 00:15:44:23

Ask the government.

00:15:45:02 - 00:15:48:10

The police were nearby,
when she was shot.

00:15:48:14 - 00:15:52:10

The authorities
has surveillance images.

00:15:52:14 - 00:15:58:18

Dozens are killed every day,
but they don’t do anything about it.

00:15:58:22 - 00:16:03:17
There’s no honor in honor killing.
They should know that.

00:16:08:22 - 00:16:13:01

So for me, it is a very big move.
And I think they should do it every Friday.

00:16:13:05 - 00:16:17:16

‘Till the people can know about it more and more.

00:16:18:16 - 00:16:20:14

And one here too.

00:16:20:18 - 00:16:25:11
There’s a lot of places to shoot.
There’s many beautiful gardens everywhere.

00:16:28:00 - 00:16:30:14

Maram belongs to a generation -

00:16:30:18 - 00:16:34:20
- who sees the mobile phone as
a natural extension of the body.

00:16:34:24 - 00:16:38:04
The camera usually turns
against herself.

00:16:41:15 - 00:16:45:07

- I am too slow.

- You are late.

00:16:45:11 - 00:16:47:17

Can you do one more? 

00:16:47:21 - 00:16:51:06

In the pictures ends up
at social media.

00:16:51:10 - 00:16:53:10

Now, you are not late.

00:16:53:14 - 00:16:58:01

After Tara died, the people start to be
more concerned -

00:16:58:05 - 00:17:01:11

- and more restrictive
to their children.

00:17:01:15 - 00:17:06:18

My mom was saying,
don’t go out a lot.

00:17:06:22 - 00:17:11:08

"Don’t do a photoshoot on social media,

don’t go out for a while. And I did that.

00:17:11:12 - 00:17:13:16

And now she is OK with it.

00:17:19:16 - 00:17:24:11
- Do you have tips for my posing?
- Yeah, you can just do this. 

00:17:25:16 - 00:17:28:04

No no, close your legs.

00:17:28:08 - 00:17:31:11
OK, like this.

Exactly.

00:17:32:18 - 00:17:34:20

Perfect.

00:17:36:01 - 00:17:42:17

While looking at bracelets in a booth,
several men ask for selfies with Maram.

00:17:42:21 - 00:17:49:04
Last year, she took of her scarf, which
she had been forced since she was nine.

00:17:49:08 - 00:17:52:07
You can say five by five …

00:17:56:08 - 00:17:59:20

Mamma, four men took a selfie with me.

00:18:02:05 - 00:18:04:20

- You are a sweetheart.

- Thanks.

00:18:09:24 - 00:18:13:05
There is no place to sit in here.

00:18:18:13 - 00:18:23:07

Sadeq is preparing for a photo session
with the model Tiba.

00:18:23:11 - 00:18:28:15

Another experiment in the borderland
between identify, gender and culture.

00:18:28:19 - 00:18:34:01
I can have like different
personalities or characters -

00:18:34:05 - 00:18:40:08

- without changing my identity.
I am just changing with make-up or in the photo session.

00:18:40:12 - 00:18:44:07
And I love it,
because it is really unique.

00:18:44:11 - 00:18:50:08
I don’t think any other photographers did that.

Sadeq made all the masks himself.

00:18:52:21 - 00:18:57:23
I don’t like insects and butterflies,
but I like the glasses.

00:18:58:02 - 00:19:02:16
Look up. The shoulder a little back.

Yeah, like that.

00:19:14:07 - 00:19:21:01
The photo shootings with Tara,
putted me in a map on a higher scale.

00:19:21:05 - 00:19:23:24

Not just in Iraq.

00:19:24:03 - 00:19:28:11

She had followers outside of Iraq,
who came to me.

00:19:28:15 - 00:19:34:24
That time, when I did the photo session,
I had a lot of criticism because of her.

00:19:35:03 - 00:19:41:19
Even from my friends. They told me ‘Oh my god,
you did the photo session for Tara, it will ruin your future’

00:19:41:23 - 00:19:47:12

- That I am a bad person.
- People say bad things about you.

00:19:47:16 - 00:19:52:16

- Because they thought, that Tara was bad.

- Exactly. That’s the thing.

00:19:52:20 - 00:19:57:22
Actually, people started
to come to me -

00:19:58:01 - 00:20:02:10
- and told me: “Stop listening to them.
Your work is amazing.”

00:20:02:14 - 00:20:07:03
That is the people from the US and Europe,
who knew Tara personally.

00:20:07:07 - 00:20:12:20
They told me: “Your work is amazing”,

and they motivated me to not stop doing, what I’m doing.

00:20:12:24 - 00:20:15:20
But here people has to get their nose in everything.

00:20:15:24 - 00:20:21:04
I always say: Your noise is in
your face, not in my life.

00:20:26:03 - 00:20:29:14

There’s a lot of things, you don’t know about me.

00:20:29:18 - 00:20:39:00
The past few weeks I have read
poems and heard songs about love.

00:20:39:04 - 00:20:42:20
After all, most Iraqi songs is about love.

00:20:42:24 - 00:20:47:19
But in fact, most men here
never really fall in love.

00:20:47:23 - 00:20:53:10
Or maybe, but they can’t help but
be unfaithful. I do not know why.

00:20:59:11 - 00:21:02:23
What did Tara do? 

00:21:03:02 - 00:21:08:03

She only wanted to make her
own brand and work with it.

00:21:08:07 - 00:21:13:00
Why did she deserve to die for it?

Why?

00:21:16:18 - 00:21:22:23

Nobody knows why Tara was killed
of three shots in her head by daylight.

 

00:21:23:02 - 00:21:26:14
But the killing pulls tracks,
and for whatever the motive is -

00:21:26:18 - 00:21:31:03
- a deeper answer on the crime
is nourished elsewhere.

00:21:34:23 - 00:21:39:18
In Iraq, a woman becomes vulnerable
as soon as she leaves the kitchen.

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There, she risks her good reputation
and maybe even her life.

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Nevertheless, the models
and Sadeq insist on change -

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- and to dare to be themselves,
with or without mask.

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I just want to say: Love yourself,
with the good things and with the bad things.