Woman Murdered in Pakistan Over Photoshopped Image With Boyfriend
An 18-year-old Pakistani woman was killed after a Photoshopped photo of her sitting with a boyfriend went viral on social media.
The woman was shot dead over the doctored photo in a so-called “honor killing” over the doctored photograph in the Kohistan district of Pakistan on November 24. She has not been named by Pakistani police.
CBS News reports that last week, the woman’s father and three other men were been arrested on suspicion of murdering her.
Local police chief Masood Khan said that a photoshopped image of the 18-year-old woman had been widely circulated on social media. The image had allegedly been edited to look like she was sitting next to a boyfriend.
Her father and three other men reportedly killed the woman on orders from village elders of a “tribal jirga” (council) who thought she had brought shame to her family by posing for pictures with a man.
The man in the photo, whom the jirga also wanted dead, was put in protective custody by police.
According to BBC News, two others — a young woman and a young man — also received death threats after another Photoshopped picture of them went viral on social media in Pakistan too. Local authorities took the second woman into protective custody but released her back to her family after a court hearing, where she said she faced no risk to her life at home.
Police said the pictures in both cases appeared to have been edited and posted on fake social media accounts.
Local police chief Khan said that investigators are now trying to trace the individual who edited and posted the image online since the actions led to her killing.
Honor killings are a serious issue in Pakistan, a conservative Muslim country where close relatives take the lives of hundreds of women each year because of actions perceived as violating conservative norms on love and marriage. These killings are usually carried out by relatives who say they are acting in defense of their family’s honor.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, there were 384 honor killings reported in 2022 alone.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
