Friday, 06 June 2025
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** The female TikTokers silenced through murder
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When news broke on Monday of 17-year-old Sana Yousaf’s murder, it was first described as a potential “honour-based killing”. Yousaf, a social media influencer from Pakistan, had become a visible presence online. As outraged as we all were, Index didn’t comment initially, wanting to find out more of the facts. Now we have them. A 22-year-old man has confessed ([link removed]) to killing her after she allegedly rejected him romantically.

At first glance, this horrendous murder might not appear to be a straightforward case of censorship. But it’s still part of a broader pattern: women’s voices being suppressed through violence.

Inside Pakistan, Yousaf’s death has triggered both grief and backlash. According to Usama Khilji, director of the digital rights group Bolo Bhi, some – mostly men – have questioned her online presence ([link removed]) and even called for her family to delete her accounts. These attempts to silence her posthumously are a horrible sign of how threatening female visibility remains. More horrible still: Yousaf is not alone. In January, for example, teenage TikToker Hira Anwar ([link removed]) was murdered by her father, who said he found her posts “objectionable”.

Pakistan is not an outlier. Rather these killings are part of a global pattern of femicide, the gender-motivated killing of women done by men who seek to control what women say and wear, who they love and more broadly how they live. While this control is extreme in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Turkey, it’s just as entrenched across Latin America.

Naming this violence is a struggle. In Mexico, where Amnesty International estimated in 2021 that 10 women and girls were murdered every day ([link removed]) , Index reported in 2023 ([link removed]) on the widespread misclassification of femicides as homicides, which was seen as a strategy to protect the country’s global image. That was under former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Under the country’s new, first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, there may be change. When 23-year-old influencer Valeria Márquez ([link removed]) was shot dead last month while livestreaming on TikTok, the gender-based nature of her killing was formally acknowledged by the Jalisco prosecutor’s office.

These labels matter because, without calling it femicide, it’s hard to confront the systems that routinely and violently deny women a voice. Unsurprisingly, such systems deny women justice too. In Honduras – the country with the highest femicide rate ([link removed]) per capita in Latin America – these murders don’t just go periodically unpunished, they’re often undocumented ([link removed]) . Many are too afraid to name an assailant, fearing retaliation. Some survivors of violence are even told ([link removed]) that women “should not talk about these things”.

So let’s not treat Sana Yousaf’s death as the act of a lone, disturbed man. Let’s call it what it is: another attempt to silence women who dare to speak.

Jemimah Steinfeld

CEO, Index on Censorship


** More from Index
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From DR Congo to Israel: The week in free expression ([link removed])

A round-up of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days ([link removed])

UK journalists face growing personal threats and say media freedom is at risk ([link removed])

A Reuters Institute report shows that 48% of those surveyed think truth is shaped by power ([link removed])

The threat minorities face in Syria ([link removed])

What does the new leadership mean for coexistence of ethnic and religious groups? ([link removed])

The EU is losing patience with Hungary ([link removed])

Will the bloc stand up to Viktor Orbán’s oppressive anti-LGBTQ+ laws? ([link removed])

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** Introducing our Am I facing a SLAPP? tool
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Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are a form of judicial harassment aimed at intimidating and ultimately silencing anyone who speaks out on issues of political or societal importance.

Our new questionnaire is a useful tool to identify potential SLAPP tactics.

MORE INFORMATION ([link removed])


** From DR Congo to Israel: The week in free expression
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** >> HUNGARY: ([link removed]) Ban of LGBTQ+ content violates human rights ([link removed])
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** >> TANZANIA ([link removed]) : Government bans X under guise of pornographic content ([link removed])
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** >> DR CONGO: ([link removed]) Media banned from reporting on former president and his party ([link removed])
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** >> ISRAEL: ([link removed]) BBC crew held at gunpoint by IDF in southern Syria ([link removed])
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** >> HONDURAS: ([link removed]) Journalist killed despite state protection ([link removed])
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** >> SALMAN RUSHDIE: ([link removed]) Free speech, fiction and survival ([link removed])
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** Flashback
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Tiananmen Square: The hunger strike declaration ([link removed])

by By Liu Xiaobo Zhou Duo Hou Dejian and Gao Xin ([link removed])

Index on Censorship, volume 18, issue 8 ([link removed])

“We are on hunger strike. We protest, we appeal, we repent. We are not in search of death; we are looking for real life.”

Thirty six years ago, four student leaders issued a hunger strike declaration in #Tiananmen Square demanding freedom, democracy and human rights. Days later, the massacre began. This week, on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, we remember the bravery of all those who fought for their rights. Read the story here. ([link removed])


** Support our work
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The world is becoming more authoritarian and our work calling out human rights abuses and promoting freedom of expression in countries such as Pakistan, Syria, and Hungary has never been more important.

By supporting Index on Censorship today, you can help us in our work with censored artists, jailed musicians, journalists under threat and dissidents facing torture or worse.

Please donate today ([link removed])

Photos by: (Protest demanding justice for Sana Yousaf) Pakistan Press International (PPI)/Alamy Live News; (Tiananmen Square) World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

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