Nawfal Al-Khazraji, was a 25-year-old Iraqi who joined the peaceful Tishreen Movement protests of October 2019, demanding an end to corruption and foreign influence. 

On October 25, 2019, Nawfal was murdered by Badr Organization during these peaceful protests, as Zahra, his widow testifies: 

Testimony from Zahra, Nawfal’s Widow: 

Nawfal was a very polite and calm young man. He loved his country and had dreams that did not come true unfortunately. At 7:00 pm, on October 25, 2019, Nawfal left his house to demonstrations’ squares after he bid farewell for his wife and child while laughing and playing. At that time, everyone looked happy to see such crowds holding one another’s hands and taking to the streets to protest corrupt governments, thieves, and criminals. Later, the demonstrators headed to close all offices of parties in Babylon until they arrived at the office of the criminal Badr Organization. The demonstrators chanted peaceful slogans in front of the office. At this point, the sons of the accused Abu Saddiq al-Hili, who is the manager of the office, opened fire at the peaceful demonstrators from the roof of the office. At 11:30 pm, Nawfal sustained a shot in the head, becoming the first martyr to fall down in front of the office. At 6:00 a.m., Nawfal’s child was sick and his wife called him hoping to reply to her repeated calls. At that point, an employee of the Medico-Legal replied to the call, asking Nawfal’s wife to come immediately. That moment, Nawfal’s father called me and was waiting for him to share their breakfast as usual. I told him that Nawfal was at the hospital. I went to him with my daughter and assumed the necessary procedure to receive Nawfal’s  body. I instituted judicial proceedings against the Badr Organization. After that, the demonstrators funeralized Nawfal at the squares of demonstrations. We were so proud because when people saw the funeral, demonstrators assembled from everywhere until the afternoon of October 26, 2019 when squares were quite full of demonstrators, demanding to take revenge for the martyrs of Babylon. When seeing that exciting scene of the crowds, Nawfal’s father forgot about his grief, shaved his beard, and remained in the squares. We started preparing food for the demonstrators. I left school then, as I was in the 6th preparatory class. I embarked on forming a team of students, journalists, teachers, doctors, and political experts to raise the adults’ awareness and urge them to deal rationally with the parties to avoid mistakes and keep the revolution from diverting away from being peaceful. At that period of time, the Badr Organization started to threaten us.  

Nawfal’s father describes what happened after Nawfal was murdered: “All these revolutions don’t get established without blood. Even though it took my son’s life, if the revolution won’t win without blood, I won’t mind sacrificing Nawfal. I’m proud, very proud of this story and legacy. We all should know, we all should learn that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”