Sania Khan, a 29-year-old Pakistani-origin woman was killed by her ex-husband in Chicago (US) after she opened up about her divorce and healing journey on social media, according to media reports.
According to the police report, the Pakistani American Sania Khan had recently moved to Chicago and was allegedly shot by her ex-husband, 36-year-old Raheel Ahmed who travelled from his home in Alpharetta.
Pakistan newspaper Dawn reported that Sania’s father Haider Farooq Khan on Thursday posted a brief announcement on her daughter’s Facebook page.
“My oldest daughter Sania Khan passed away. Her funeral will be on Thursday after Asr prayer, at Chattanooga Islamic center. Please keep us in your duaa,” the post read.
Chicago police, according to ABC News said that officers arrived last Monday afternoon at the 200 block of E. Ohio street where they found a woman and a man with gunshot injuries to their heads inside a residence.
The woman was declared dead on the spot, while the man was transported to Northwestern Hospital where he succumbed to injuries, and a weapon was recovered from the scene, as per the police statement.
Khan’s marriage lasted less than a year before she filed for divorce, according to her own posts on TikTok as cited by ABC News.
“Going through a divorce as a South Asian woman feels like you failed at life sometimes,” she wrote in a video posted on social media.
“The way the community labels you, the lack of emotional support you receive, and the pressure to stay with someone because ‘what will people say’ is isolating. It makes it harder for women to leave marriages that they shouldn’t have been in to begin with,” she further said.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW), in its Annual World Report 2022, documented allegations of extensive rights abuses against women along with children in Pakistan, which ranks 167 out of 170 countries on the Global Women, Peace and Security index released by Georgetown University.
Male supremacy prevails in Pakistani society at all levels, yet their “honour” fails to match their masculinity in all other matters and remains extremely delicate, easily compromised by, and exceedingly dependent upon their women’s modesty, the report commented.
“Violence against women and girls, including rape, murder, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage, is endemic throughout Pakistan.
According to Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey data for 2017-18, 28 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 years had experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetimes.