04/06/2025
17-year-old Sana Yousaf, a TikTok content creator and passionate advocate for girls' education and cultural identity from Chitral, was shot dead in cold blood inside her home in Islamabad. Her killer, Umar Hayat — a man she did not know personally — had been obsessively sending her marriage proposals. When she rejected him multiple times, he responded the way far too many men in Pakistan do: with a gun. He shot her twice at close range and fled, only to be caught later. This was not just the murder of a girl — it was the public ex*****on of a young woman’s right to say NO.
Even more disturbing than the murder itself is the public reaction that followed. Instead of collective outrage, a massive portion of online discourse blamed her "These girls are spreading vulgarity,” “What was she doing on TikTok anyway?”, “Serves her right,” — this kind of victim-blaming is not just common in Pakistan, it is culturally embedded. A woman being visible in public, especially online, is seen by many as an open invitation for harassment, abuse — even murder. In this society, a woman’s life is only valued if she stays silent, hidden, and submissive. The moment she claims visibility or autonomy, she is deemed a threat to ‘morality’.
Women in Pakistan today are unsafe both online and offline. Harassment, stalking, blackmailing, character assassination, and in Sana’s case,
are all daily risks that come simply with being a woman who dares to exist beyond the walls of her home. Human rights here are not just absent — they are a joke. The legal system offers little protection, and society at large is quick to justify violence against women if they are perceived to have stepped out of line.
Sana’s murder is not an isolated incident — it is a symptom of a deeply diseased society where toxic masculinity, moral hypocrisy, and systemic misogyny operate hand-in-hand. And until this collective rot is acknowledged and fought at every level — from homes to schools to parliament — more young women like Sana will be silenced forever, while their killers are emboldened by a culture that quietly nods in approval.