Facebook star killed 'by brother for honour' in Pakistan

Shazia Bhatti

July 16, 2016

Internet users look at images of Qandeel Baloch, who became famous through her tireless self-promotion and suggestive 'selfies' posted on social media, in Islamabad (AFP Photo/Farooq Naeem)

A Pakistani social media celebrity whose selfies polarised the deeply conservative Muslim country has been murdered by her brother in a suspected honour killing, officials said Saturday, prompting shock and revulsion.

Qandeel Baloch, praised by many of the country's youth for her willingness to break social taboos but condemned by conservatives, was strangled near the city of Multan, police said.

"Qandeel Baloch has been killed, she was strangled to death by her brother. Apparently it was an incident of honour killing," Sultan Azam, senior police officer in Multan, told AFP.

Baloch, believed to be in her twenties, had travelled with her family from the southern port city of Karachi to Muzzafarabad village in central Punjab province for the recent Eid holiday.

She was killed there Friday, police said.

"The brother was also there last night and the family told us that he strangled her to death," Azhar Akram, another senior police official in Multan told AFP.

Police said the brother was now on the run. Up to 100 officers were gathered outside her family's home in Muzzafarabad, an AFP reporter there said, preventing neighbours from gathering. Five ambulances were also parked nearby.

Hundreds of women are murdered for "honour" every year in Pakistan.

The killers overwhelmingly walk free because of a law that allows the family of the victim to forgive the murderer -- who is often also a relative.

Filmmaker Sharmeemn Obaid-Chinoy, whose documentary on honour killings won an Oscar earlier this year, slammed Baloch's murder as symptomatic of an "epidemic" of violence against women in Pakistan.

News of the murder was trending on social media in Pakistan, with liberal users calling for action, but some conservatives -- including users identified as women -- condemning Baloch's relentless self-promotion.

In one typical comment, Twitter user @JiaAli wrote: "Someone had to do it. She was a disgrace."

But Facebook user Zaair Hussain said: "RIP Qandeel Baloch. You made us laugh, and you made us applaud... I think history will remember you as a provocateur, a living exhibit, a larger than life role - just as you would want to be remembered."

- 'No woman is safe' -

Baloch shot to fame in Pakistan in 2014 after a video of her pouting at the camera and asking "How em looking?" went viral.

Her defiance of tradition and defence of liberal views won her many admirers among Pakistan's overwhelmingly young population.

But in a country where women have fought for rights for decades, and acid attacks and honour killings remain commonplace, she was also reviled by many and frequently subject to misogynist abuse online.

Baloch provoked controversy last month after posing for selfies with a high-profile cleric, who was sternly rebuked by the country's religious affairs ministry.

On Valentine's Day, she donned a plunging scarlet dress and posted a video message defying the country's president, who had issued a stern warning against the "Western" celebration. The post garnered more than 70,000 'likes'.

"People are going crazy -- especially girls. I get so many calls where they tell me I'm their inspiration and they want to be like me," she told AFP at the time.

She had reportedly spoken of leaving the country after Eid out of fear for her safety.

Obaid-Chinoy told AFP the murder would make women feel less safe.

"There is not a single day where you don't pick up a paper and see a woman hasn't been killed," the maker of "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" told AFP.

"What is frightening is this is an epidemic... I really feel that no woman is safe in this country, until we start making examples of people, until we start sending men who kill women to jail."

Obaid-Chinoy's film was hailed by Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who in February vowed to push through anti-honour killing legislation.

No action has been taken since then, despite a fresh wave of attacks on women recently that has been roundly condemned by activists.