Taif Alkhudary is a research assistant at the LSE Middle East Centre.
Hayder Al-Shakeri is a development practitioner and commentator on Iraqi affairs. He currently works with a Geneva-based NGO on cooperation programmes between Arab countries.
Comment: Reham Yacoub's assassination is evidence of an increasingly restricted space for free speech and protest in Iraq, write Taif Alkhudary and Hayder Al-Shakeri.