A year after they murdered Qandeel

Pakistan

A year after they murdered Qandeel

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By Aroma Shahid

Social media sensation, Qandeel Baloch, is remembered for her viral videos on social networking sites that had stirred a much heated debate in Pakistan.

June 15 marks a year since she was murdered in Multan for ‘honour’, by her own brother.

Qandeel became popular for her videos which were tagged as ‘inappropriate’ and ‘vulgar’ on social media yet also managed to gain a wide audience. During her short period under the spotlight, Qandeel Baloch constantly challenged the country’s obsession with claiming ownership over women.

Her actions baffled everyone including the progressive, the conservatives, and also feminists, as she developed a love-hate relationship with her viewers who guiltily indulged in gawking over every video she posted and later, took to social media to post hate messages, insults, and even rape or death threats.

Qandeel did not become popular on mainstream media until 2016 when she, in a video posted on Facebook, promised to perform a strip-tease for Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi if Pakistan won a match against India.

By June 2016, Qandeel shot to fame after she posted her selfies with Mufti Abdul Qawi, a member of the religious clergy whom she visited. The pictures circulated on social media and stirred a controversy. Qawi came under fierce criticism.

In his defence, Qawi said the meeting had intended to ‘guide her’. However, Baloch took to mocking Qawi and said that she had exposed the hypocritical identity of the Pakistani male.

Mufti Qawi faced criticism for meeting social media star Qandeel Baloch. Courtesy: Facebook

She later announced that she was receiving death threats and abuses for humiliating a religious cleric but she remained adamant on, what she termed was aimed at, publicly shaming the double standards of a patriarchal society.

In an interview with The Express Tribune, Qawi said, “Those who want to humiliate clerics must learn from Qandeel Baloch’s fate. Those who have done so must repent and should ask forgiveness from clerics as well as Almighty Allah.”

The incident took the internet sensation to new heights of fame as she became the centre of mainstream media attention. Although, she carefully selected what parts of her life to expose, the secret about her real identity, that of Fauzia Azeem, was revealed as interest surrounding her life increased with growing controversy over her social media posts.

Her defiance was hard to miss.

She was allegedly murdered by her own brother who publicly confessed that he was being bullied by his male friends for ‘allowing’ his sister to bring shame to their ‘family honour’ by  exposing herself  before the world. Her death was met with a mix of emotions and stirred confusion as the debate on morality continued.

Pakistan faces around 1,000 honour killings cases every year, according to a report by Human Rights Commission Pakistan, and women continue to be victims of the incompetent and unfair legal system.

Even her death had sparked a debate both within and outside the country, as both local and international media highlighted the case.

Qandeel’s death was reported by media outlets from all around the world. Photo:Screengrab

Pakistani actress Saba Qamar is playing Qandeel’s role in an upcoming TV drama on her life which is set to come out soon. The show aims at highlighting her struggles and the obstacles she faced while trying to become popular enough to provide financial support to her family.

Saba Qamar will play Qandeel’s role in an upcoming biopic. Courtesy: Instagram

“If anyone, it’s the people who need to be blamed for making Qandeel a social media sensation. If no one had followed her, she would not have made what she did. It’s they who are responsible for her death,” Saba said in an exclusive interview with Mid-day.

Filmmaker Saad Khan took the initiative to share stories about her life in the words of the women who knew her better than anyone - her mother and sister.

"If I die, there won’t be another Qandeel Baloch for a hundred years" - Qandeel. Courtesy: Qandeel ki Kahani (Facebook).

Their narration provides an insight into her life that was never highlighted before through a series titled ‘Qandeel ki Kahani’.

In one of the stories, her sister recalls an incident when Qandeel got lost on her way to meet her grandmother and ended up at Edhi home. Abdul Sattar Edhi personally dropped her off to her parent’s residence but she was not allowed to attend school after the incident.

Qandeel’s sister said in the interview: “Whatever happened to my sister, first it was Mufti Qawi, and then it was the media who caused my sister’s death,”