Fakhriya Abdel Karim

Fakhriya Abdel Karim or better known as her stage name Zainab was a prominent Iraqi actress and activist. She was born in the Southern city of Al Kut and died of ovarian cancer in Sweden at the age of 63.

She became an actress in the early 1950's when the Iraqi film industry was just emerging. She later starred in dozens of plays and several films.

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