The father of a murdered Pakistani reality star has spoken out for the first time since his daughter’s death.
Qandeel Baloch, 26, was found dead in her family home in Multan on Friday, after her brother Mohammad Waseem admitted to strangling her in an ‘honour killing’.
Talking at her funeral yesterday, the father of Qandeel, Mohammad Azeem said that: ‘she supported all of us, including my son who killed her’, adding that her sons were unhappy with her achievements, the Daily Mail reports.
Her social media presence and feminist attitudes made her a somewhat controversial figure in the Muslim nation, with many dubbing her Pakistan’s answer to Kim Kardashian.
In a shocking press conference, her brother explained to reporters how he was ‘not embarrassed’ about strangling her because her behaviour ‘was completely intolerable’.
He said:
Yes of course, I strangled her. She was on the ground floor while our parents were asleep on the roof top. It was around 10.45 pm when I gave her a tablet and then killed her. I am not embarrassed at all over what I did. Whatever was the case, it [her behaviour] was completely intolerable.
Waseem absconded after his sister’s death, but was eventually tracked down by police officers in a neighbouring district and handed in to the authorities by his father, where he then confessed to killing her ‘in honour’.
Multan City police chief Azhar Akram said that Waseem told them he did it ‘after her recent objectionable videos’ which she mostly posted on Facebook.
Baloch often claimed that she faced death threats after such videos, but her requests to the authorities for protection were sadly ignored.
Hundreds of women are murdered for ‘honour’ every year in Pakistan, with the law stating that the murderer can walk free if the victim’s family agrees to forgive them.
Filmmaker Sharmeemn Obaid-Chinoy, whose documentary on ‘honour killings’ won an Oscar earlier this year, slammed her murder as symptomatic of an ‘epidemic’ of violence against women in Pakistan, saying: “Activists have screamed themselves hoarse. When will it stop?”
Many took to the capital Lahore to mourn Baloch’s death, with an online petition now going viral to demand accountability over her murder.
Columnist and activist, Aisha Sarawari, said:
Qandeel was an extremely astute individual who knew that what she was doing was more than being the most loved bad girl of Pakistan. [Her killing] defines yet another setback for the women of our generation. This makes it harder for women. Period.
We can only hope that her tragic passing will finally lead to anti-honour killing legislation being enforced.
