Pakistani Social Media Celebrity Offed By Her Own Brother for "Dishonouring" Her Family

She was young. She was beautiful. She took selfies, some of 'em quite "sexy" (sexy for Pakistan, that is, and not in the Kardashian sense of things).

She was even uppity enough to a selfie with a mufti, which, needless to say, didn't go over well with his fellow sharia-enforcers.

Now she's dead, strangled to death in her sleep with the apparent complicity of her parents (who were in the house at the time).

Don't worry, though. The cleric in her selfie is full of forgiveness--for her:

Mufti Abdul Qavi who got suspended from Ruet-e-Hilal Committee membership after selfies with Qandeel Baloch said the murder of the model is lesson for others. 

Reacting on killing of Qandeel Baloch, he said no one should make mockery of ulema. However, he said he condemns murder of Qandeel and he had forgiven her from the core of his heart. 

Qandeel Baloch has been murdered allegedly by her own brother in Green Town, the outskirt of Multan. 

According to the media reports, Qandeel Baloch’s father informed the police that his daughter has been strangled to death by his son. 

“Qandeel was killed by her brother over honour in Muzaffarabad’s Green Town area,” the area’s RPO told media.

According to the report, Qandeel knew her life was in danger, but, tragically, couldn't get anyone to help her:

The model seemed to be troubled in the last few days, Geo News Multan Bureau Chief said. “The last I called her for an interview, she was crying on the phone,” he said. 

The model girl was staying in the native town since a day before Eidul Fitr. 

Qandeel Baloch had earlier claimed she was receiving death threats and had sought security. However, following “no response” from the interior ministry on her application for getting personal security, social media starlet Qandeel Baloch was planning to settle down abroad after Eidul Fitr, citing security threats in the backdrop of her recent scandal with Mufti Abdul Qawi as the reason.

In a way, the mufti is right. What happened to this woman is a lesson to other young women in Pakistan that social media mechanisms can give them the illusion of power--and even bring them a degree of "celebrity." The reality, though, is that all this 21st Century technology is no match for 7th Century thinking re a woman's place in the world, and the necessity of keeping her there forever.

Update: With its headline "Pakistani model killed after offending conservatives," AP makes it sound as though the poor, murdered woman had it coming.