The date of December 7, 2021 has been permanently engraved in Shazia Khan’s memory. Her son-in-law Raheel Ahmad attempted suicide by jumping from the 28th floor window of the apartment in which he lived with her daughter, Sania Khan.
The two women were able to prevent Raheel’s six-foot frame from falling out of the window, but Raheel’s mother was injured in the process.
Raheel made A second attempt to kill Sania and himself on July 18, 2022. It was this time that he was successful.
As of the time of Sania’s death, she lived in a different state than Raheel and was separated from him. After months of sleepless nights and tears, Sania was feeling free and happy, according to friends and family.
Having become a viral TikTok star after her TikTok on divorce stigma went viral, Sania’s photography business was booming. When Raheel drove nine hours with a gun to Sania’s apartment where he killed them both, Sania was packing up her house with plans to move back to Chattanooga, Tennessee where she grew up.
The death of Sania Khan is the second Pakistani-American woman killed by a former lover in the past four months. The murder of Sadia Manzoor’s four-year-old daughter, her mother, and her ex-husband occurred in Houston earlier this year.
While maintaining the utmost respect for attorney-client privilege, which remains in effect after a client’s death, I was a member of the legal team that worked on Sadia Manzoor’s divorce case. I can tell you based on my conversations with both Sadia Manzoor’s mother and Sania Khan’s friends that both cases share some disturbing characteristics.
Sania and Sadia were both married to men who had not initially been physically violent, but who displayed unstable, toxic behavior from the start. There was a great deal of control involved in both cases in terms of finances and emotions.
As charming and productive members of society, both men knew when the time was right for them to do so. However, both men refused to seek consistent medical treatment despite their mental health deteriorating. Ultimately, both men were unable to accept that their marriage was not a good one and that their ex-spouses had the right to divorce them and live their own lives.
In America, guns have more rights than women
The murder of a spouse is considered a case. However, when hundreds of thousands of men commit this crime, it becomes an epidemic. Underreporting of domestic abuse makes statistics unreliable in Pakistan, where domestic abuse is largely considered a private matter.
In the United States, one in four women will experience some form of domestic violence during their lifetime, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Additionally, if the abuser has access to a gun – which is frighteningly easy in the United States because of its lax, out-of-date gun laws – he is five times as likely to kill his victim.
According to an abuse survivor, in America, men have greater rights than abused women when it comes to guns.
In order to understand domestic abuse, it is important to understand that it is not predictable or predictable in any way. It is important for everyone involved – including law enforcement and family courts – to get it right at every turn. Understanding domestic abuse begins with an understanding of what it is and is not.
Abuse of a woman by her husband does not belong to the private realm of the woman and her husband. She deeply rooted the issue in society, particularly in societies that place a premium on preserving patriarchal values.
In addition to being a problem for the poor and uneducated, domestic abuse affects everyone. Sadia Manzoor and Sania Khan were both educated, strong women who had publicly exposed the controlling and toxic behavior of their abusers.
Last but not least, domestic abuse encompasses more than cuts and bruises.
There are several types of domestic abuse, including neglect, threats, withholding food or medicine, financial control, sexual humiliation, and sexual abuse. Feelings of entrapment and powerlessness characterize A domestic abuse situation, resulting in the humiliation, intimidation, exploitation, isolation, and dominance of a partner. In addition to being a human rights issue, domestic abuse poses a global health crisis.
According to Jess Hill, women should not fear the monster lurking in the dark, but instead their adoring partners.
