AP ties Pakistani model’s honor killing to ‘conservatives’

Pakistani law enforcement officials said Qandeel Baloch’s death was an “honor killing,” a term used to describe when someone murders a family member for violating some tenet of Islam.

Her killer was one of her six brothers, police said.

The murdered fashion model, whose real name is Fauzia Azeem, angered hardline, traditional Muslims when she uploaded a series of photos to social media showing her with a Muslim cleric, Mufti Qavi.

She claimed in the posts that she and the cleric had smoked cigarettes and drank soda during Ramadan’s normal fasting hours.

In response to the apparent violation of the fasting guidelines, many Muslims were outraged, and Pakistan’s government demoted Qavi.

Baloch was strangled as she lay sleeping.

Her death came after she had asked her government repeatedly for protection following numerous, anonymous death threats.

This is how the Associated Press reported the story:

Pakistani fashion model Qandeel Baloch, who recently stirred controversy by posting pictures of herself with a Muslim cleric on social media, was strangled to death by her brother, police said Saturday.

Her parents told police one of her six brothers strangled her to death as she slept in the family’s home in Multan, police spokeswoman Nabila Ghazanfar told The Associated Press. She said police are searching for the suspect.

Baloch, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, was little known until recently, when she offended many conservatives by posting pictures of herself with Mufti Qavi, a prominent cleric. She said the two of them enjoyed soft drinks and cigarettes together during the daylight hours in the holy month of Ramadan, when practicing Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.

The pictures and allegations caused a scandal in conservative Pakistan, and the government removed Qavi from the official moon-sighting committee that determines when Ramadan starts and ends in accordance with the Islamic lunar calendar.

Baloch had said Qavi told her he wanted to see her face before the committee met to determine the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, which was observed earlier this month.

Qavi denied the allegations, saying he only met with her to discuss the teachings of Islam.

Earlier this month, Baloch sought protection from the government, saying she was receiving anonymous death threats.

Hundreds of Pakistani woman are murdered by family members each year in so-called honor killings, which are seen as punishment for violating conservative norms.

The AP’s story was picked up quickly and aggregated by some of the biggest newsrooms in the United States, headline and all.

But not all newsrooms tied Baloch’s death to angered “conservatives”:

The AP did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.