Dr. Su’ad Al-Ali was the head of Al-Weed Al-Alaiami for Human Rights. According to the NGO’s website, its main focus is « women’s rights and demands” as well as « children’s rights and many activities for the revival of childhood. » Dr. Al-Ali had also been a leader of recent demonstrations that broke out in the governorate of Basra on 14 July 2018 and spread to many other Iraqi cities protesting unemployment and demanding jobs and proper public services for citizens, as well as calling for the elimination of rampant corruption. The human rights defender was assassinated in the Al-Abbasiyah district in downtown Basra on 25 September, 2018.
A video of the incident widely published on social networking sites showed a person approaching her as she was getting into her car, firing a bullet at the back of her head and pointing another bullet at her driver Hussain Hassan, 31, who was injured in the shoulder.
Dr. Al-Ali was 46 and the mother of four children.
From the press release by Gulf Centre for Human Rights