Killing his daughter for TikTok shame

[MsAmerica]

Her Father Took Her on a Trip to Pakistan. The Police Say It Was a Trap.
Hira Anwar was pulled out of middle school for what she thought was a vacation. Her death is being investigated as a so-called honor killing.
By Sarah Maslin Nir and Zia ur-Rehman

In late January, while on a vacation with her father to his hometown, Quetta, Pakistan, Hira was shot to death in front of her father’s family home. Shortly after, her father, Anwar ul-Haq Rajpoot, tearfully told the police that a random attack had taken his daughter’s life. But the Pakistani police now say that the shooting, and in fact the entire trip, was a trap that he orchestrated.

In a chilling confession, Mr. Rajpoot told investigators he ordered Hira’s execution because her behavior was an embarrassment. Mr. Rajpoot had his daughter killed, he told the police, because “Hira’s clothing choices, lifestyle and social relationships” had brought her family shame.

In Yonkers, her school, her friends and her family are reeling, unable to process the death of an eighth grader whose sass impressed her teachers and whose staunch character made her a go-to referee among her girlfriends.

“It is hard for us to even understand mentally that this actually happened,” the eldest of her two sisters, Heba Anwar, 22, said before declining to comment further. “We were living a very happy nice life.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/nyregion/hira-anwar-honor-killing-pakistan.html

another reason why we should ban cousin marriage. Aside from the birth defects, if men are violent and coercive, then the wife is related to both sides of the family so there is absolutely no prospect of any support.

I absolutely agree with this.

There's also a tendancy for cousin marriages to be arranged marriages because people who can choose their partners tend to look outside the family, and arranged marriages inherently mean that both bride and groom have less agency about if and who they wed. I'm not claiming that women get it right when we get to choose husbands, but I am saying that we get to choose not to marry at all and we aren't defying our parents, who may seek to punish us, when we divorce.

I would still argue its Misogny and Culture rather than religion.
If it was religion it would happen in ALL Islamic countries.
There are also instances of Hindu's doing this in India and Pakistan

I'm not trying to stop discussion at all. I am just giving my opinion - same as everyone else posting here.

Ah, so "honour" murders have to happen in 100% of the islamic countries before you will deign to pay attention. Talk of shifting the goalposts.

I AM paying attention
I also wish you would stop using the word "honour" in this context
My point is that not ALL Muslims behave like this and there is nothing in Islam or The Qran that allows or encourages it. Also non Muslims do it.
The fact that this happens in certain cultures and in certain countries more than others I still believe is down to culture not religion.
Some people can't separate the 2, but then they don't seem to want to.

Patriarchy killings, lets call it what it is.

It does seem that culture is simply a more accurate predictor, and anyway incorporates religion.

Is your first paragraph blaming the girl for making a video? Are you saying we should teach girls not to make videos because their fathers may murder them as punishment?

How about: as a society we speak out against male violence and we teach boys not to grow into men who murder their daughters?

In addition how about we stop using the word “honour” in this context? Why are we allowing the murderer to justify his actions using his words? Why do we let him have this power and control over the way we discuss his crime?

He is a murderer. He murdered his daughter.

This is relevant, Thanks for info

I agree, there is no honour in this, and I wish it wasn’t called that, as it is just another murder of an innocent woman, by a man or men who saw her as theirs to kill. There are plenty of men who hurt women and who aren’t religious, I don’t think we call that honour killing or honour rape. Religion seems to be used to provide the justification for hurting women, saying something is an honour killing sounds better, almost noble doesn’t it.

I am suspicious of an American poster posting a link to an American newspaper about the murder of an American teenager on a British parenting site. Especially one that emphasises her murder in her immigrant father's homeland. I'm seeing so much islamophobia on American social media platforms at the moment and with the war in the middle east it feels like a deliberately provocative choice of article to post with no context as to why she has posted it.

@Namechangechanged

i think you missed my earlier post upthread where i said:

‘We need to stop calling them honour killings too. It’s murder. There’s nothing dishonerable about wearing western clothes and making friends with western girls when living in a western country. And if there is that is an issue and suggests lack of integration into western society. Why has integration failed? What risk does this lack of integration pose to women and girls?’

Of course I don’t think it’s the girls fault and I don’t think it’s honorable. But I am guessing his friends and family and associates maybe do think he’s done the right thing and his behaviour is honorable - this needs a proper discussion and research doing because for it to be honorable I assume many others from the community (which may share a religion or a culture) agree with it too. For they are surely the ones judging the family? The idea of being judged cannot come from nowhere.

@JaninaDuszejko
It was on the BBC too,

BBC extract
‘In the case of Hira Anwar, who was between 13 and 14 years old, a police spokesman said her family "had an objection to her dressing, lifestyle and social gathering".
The family lived in the US for 25 years and Hira started posting content on TikTok even before her family moved back to Pakistan.
Investigators said they were in possession of her phone, which is locked.
Her father's brother-in-law was also arrested in connection with the killing, police said.’

It seems her family objected to her dressing, lifestyle and social’ despite living in the US for 25 years. This suggests lack of integration and acceptance of western values and culture. It also suggests it was more than just her father who had objections.

Does this therefore differ than more widely researched domestic violence where one or two parents or family members or a sexual partner are involved? It appears the brother in law was involved too. So what other family members knew and did they fail to speak out? And if so is it due to them perceiving it as honorable? Or due to fear? Or another reason?

Either way it needs researching in order to protect women and girls. Without understanding we cannot help women and girls and it’s clear this girl needed protecting from her family members.

You're still missing my point, why is an American coming onto a British site to push an anti-islamic agenda? The Pakistani population in the US is much smaller than in the UK and there has been just a handful of so called 'honor killings' of American citizens over the last decade. So what is her motivation for focusing on the murder of this American teenager rather than the 12 children a day murdered with guns in the US? Of course it's a dreadful murder but in US terms it's incredibly rare, so rare they can't really draw any conclusions apart from this is a fucked-up family. So why chose to share on a British site?

Is should be called "Islamist femicide", not honour killing.

Its not Islamist just because a Muslim did it.
Nobody talks about "islamist speeding" or "Islamist robbery"
I am not denying that these types of murders happen most often in countries where the majority of people are Muslim but it does not happen just BECAUSE these men are Muslim.

Idiotic whataboutery.

A better question is why are you trying to stop people talking about this?

Doesn't it? Isn't the reason these girls get killed that they are perceived to have broken the "rules" of their faith?

How do you the Op is American? Why is this anti-islamic 'agenda' instead of a feminist issue? Who appointed you hall monitor? (Am I an American if I use that expression?)

Is there no relevance at all to the global oppression of women in dozens of countries (and minority communities in the west) and the religious edicts of Islam as preached by imams and set out in religious law which is also the civil law of numerous nations? Are we allowed to discuss UK based feminist issues relating to ethnicity and religion say the grooming gangs scandal or is that also Islamophobic or too rightwing?

Those rules are written in civil and criminal law in some countries that relate to marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance.

Similar killings have occurred in the UK and other western european countries and while they are relatively rare, they point to a pattern of coercion and violence that affects many more women who live with in it and yet (by the grace of allah) escape being murdered. Is that not a relevant topic for a feminism board to even discuss?

I find it striking that when the poor teen in this case stopped wearing the hijab to school, her school head took her aside to enquire if she was being bullied to do so but seemed to have accepted the wearing of the hijab as a case of not being bullied though we do know from red hot issues in say Iran that ditching the hijab is what actually gets girls and women killed.

There are at least 3 PPs on this thread alone trying to stop this discussion. Interesting isnt it?

Culture not faith
There is no provision in Islam for this behaviour.
Men will use their supposed faith as justification for these awful acts but it is about them as people not whatever religion they claim to follow.
I suppose its like any religion, people (mostly men) use their own interpretation of it to justify their actions.