Iraqi social media enraged by video of MP shooting gun into the air on New Year’s Eve

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi social media users expressed outrage on Tuesday at a video in which a lawmaker fired multiple rounds into the air to celebrate the ushering of the new year.

Public indignation arose after successive reports over the past few days confirmed dozens of casualties as a result of stray bullets as the country bade farewell to 2018.

In the video taken in Baghdad, MP Wahda al-Jumaili is in the passenger seat of a sedan, holding a pistol pointed upward. She turns to her driver briefly before looking into the camera, laughing, and firing two bullets in the air.

“This lawmaker does not care about the risks to public safety her actions pose,” one social media user said, adding that Jumaili’s “irresponsible behavior” is in direct opposition to her duties as a civil servant. 

Media reports on casualties from “celebratory gunfire” in Baghdad – a city of over 8 million people – said that at least one child had been killed while 77 other individuals of all ages suffered a number of injuries.

Jumaili’s “legislative immunity must be lifted” and, “along with her driver, she must be prosecuted,” another social media user demanded, with more calling for the lawmaker’s immediate arrest.

Despite repeated warnings and pleas from the country’s security forces and authorities, celebratory gunfire persists as a means to mark major events in Iraq.

Editing by Nadia Riva