Pakistani social media star killed by brother after scandal

She said: “Assuming that Qandeel Baloch’s brother will probably be arrested and punished for murder because of the high profile [nature] of the case, the fact remains that an essentially right-wing government is sitting on vital amendments in the Pakistan Criminal Procedure Code that would disallow justice to be privatised for crimes against women”.

Qandeel Baloch, a social media celebrity known as Pakistan’s Kim Kardashian and whose selfie with a cleric had gone viral, was allegedly strangled by her brother last night in what appears an “honour killing”.

According to Punjab Police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar, Baloch (whose real name was Fauzia Azeem) was killed on Friday night in her family home, her body discovered this morning.

Her videos were not very different from thousands others shared by 20-something social media celebrities around the Internet – she pouted like a kitten into the camera, discussed her various hairstyles and shared cooing confessions from her bedroom about her celebrity crushes.

Three weeks ago, Baloch went to police asking for protection, saying that she had received numerous death threats, particularly on her social media where she often was a target given the conservative nature of Pakistan.

She promised to perform a strip dance in honor of Pakistan if they defeated India in the ICC World T20 cricket match.

Yet in Pakistan, her flirty antics were unusual, pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable of women in Pakistan.

In the days before her death, she had told local media she was concerned about her safety.

According to CNN, Baloch’s brother is now on the run, and her parents were taken into custody.

Qandeel hailed from a remote area of Multan, where the media outreach is limited. In postings and public comments, she presented herself as a symbol of female empowerment in a country where domestic violence is commonplace and hundreds of women are murdered by family members each year in so-called honor killings.

Baloch tightly controlled her narrative in the media.

Baloch gained notoriety by uploading bold music videos and photos of herself on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and was a vocal advocate against misogyny and arranged marriages.

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, unless we literally say there will be no more killing and those who dare will spend the rest of their lives behind bars. “As a women [sic] we must stand up for ourselves”, she wrote.

Others, however, could not hide their delight that she had been silenced.