A 14-year-old girl born and raised in New York has been brutally murdered by her Pakistani father and uncle in a so-called “honor killing” for the “crime” of posting videos on TikTok. Hira Anwar’s relatives brought her to Pakistan, supposedly on a family vacation, to carry out the killing, in a case that highlights ongoing issues with integrating migrants from countries with values radically at odds with the West.
Anwar, described as a typical, cheerful teenager when away from her strict home environment, was subjected to a draconian code of conduct by her parents, both of whom had immigrated from Pakistan to the U.S. two decades ago. Her murder took place in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, with her father confessing the crime to the Pakistani authorities.
This case is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of “honor killings” among the Pakistani community, both domestically and abroad. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the number of such killings stood at 588 reported last year, 490 in 2023, and 590 in 2022. However, it is likely many are not officially recorded.
Honor killings are also perpetrated by migrants from other Muslim-majority countries, and not only in the United States. For instance, Somali refugee Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim was charged with strangling his pregnant Swedish girlfriend to death with a lamp cord last year, as he did not want his parents to find out about their relationship.
