The family of an Iraqi beauty queen has reportedly been forced to flee the country in the face of death threats after the young model posed for a selfie with her counterpart from Israel.

Sarah Idan, Miss Iraq, and Adar Gandelsman, Miss Israel, took the picture together at a beauty pageant in Las Vegas on November 14. "Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel,” she wrote.

The selfie was widely shared in Iraq and throughout the Arab world, where anti-Israel feelings run high.

Ms Gandelsman said she had stayed in touch with Ms Idan and learned that the young Iraqi and her family had fled their country in the face of the backlash, as well as criticism over a picture of her in a bikini.

"The two of those things together caused a mess for her back home where people made threats against her and her family that if she didn’t return home and take down the photos, they would remove her [Miss Iraq] title, that they would kill her,” Ms Gandelsman told Israel’s Hadashot News.

“Out of fear, they left Iraq at least until the situation calms down”.