Fakhriya Abdel Karim

Fakhriya Abdel Karim (born 1934/1935, Al Kut - died 1998, Sweden) was a prominent Iraqi actress and activist.

Known professionally as Zainab, she became an actress in the early 1950s when the Iraqi film industry was just emerging. She later starred in dozens of plays and several films.

She joined the Iraqi Communist Party early in her life, becoming one of its activists in its fight against successive Iraqi governments. After Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein launched a crackdown on communists, Abdel Karim left Iraq in 1979, going to South Yemen and then to Syria.

Sweden
In 1991, she was given political asylum in Sweden with her husband, director Latif Saleh.

Death
She died of ovarian cancer on August 14, 1998, aged 63, in Goteborg, Sweden, where she had lived since 1991.