Who was Sania Khan? Tragic TikToker's videos had several RED FLAGS before she was shot dead by ex-husband
A TikToker was shot dead by her ex-husband after she shared videos about her divorce in an attempt to break the stigma surrounding it. The 29-year-old Sania Khan and Raheel Ahmed, 36, were reportedly found dead with gunshot wounds to their heads on Monday, July 18, in what authorities described as an apparent murder-suicide.
Ahmed is said to have traveled from his Georgia home to Khan's Chicago condo before shooting her in the head and then turning the gun on himself. Emergency responders pronounced Khan dead at the scene, while Ahmed was declared dead at the hospital.
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Speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times, friends of the estranged couple said their divorce was finalized in May this year despite Ahmed's reluctance to dissolve the marriage. Khan, who went by the handle @geminigirl_099 on TikTok, shared several posts about the stigma she faced from her loved ones after she divorced Ahmed. “You think you can hurt me?" she wrote in one post. “My family members told me if I left my husband I would let Shaytan win, that I dress like a prostitute and if I move back to my hometown they’ll kill themselves.”
“Going through a divorce as a South Asian Woman feels like you failed at life sometimes,” she bemoaned in another. “The way the community labels you, the lack of emotional support you receive, and the pressure to stay with someone because ‘what will people say’ is isolating. It makes it harder for women to leave marriages that they shouldn’t have been in, to begin with.”
29 year old Pakistani American girl #SaniaKhan murdered by her ex husband in Chicago.
— Hamza Azhar Salam (@HamzaAzhrSalam) July 21, 2022
Sania used to make TikTok videos about the stigma of divorce in South Asian communities.
Whether its in the US or at home, honour killings by Pakistani men have bowed all our heads in shame. pic.twitter.com/2WV9we8k6F
Khan, a photographer who moved to Chicago in June 2021, wrote on her website that she specialized in weddings and couples photography. “My favorite quote is, 'Every day above ground is a good day,’” she wrote. “I used to love travel so much that I was a flight attendant," she continued. “My favorite layover was always Chicago and who would have known 2 years later I would have moved there?” She said she was originally from “a mountain town in Tennessee called Chattanooga" and that "there's almost nothing I love more than hiking and camping."
Speaking to the Sun-Times, a friend of Khan's said she attended Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences and double-majored in psychology and women’s studies. She then worked as a social worker and flight attendant in order to become a photographer. “She could make a friend out of anyone and would always be there for them during their moments,” the friend, who identified himself only as Grant, told the outlet. “You would be hard pressed to find anyone who would say something bad about Sania because just knowing Sania added so much light to your life.”
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Speaking to Time Magazine, another pal of Khan's said she and Khan had recently signed a lease together for a home in Chattanooga. Gabriella Bordó said she had just landed in Chicago to help her friend pack and begin their move when she heard the devastating news. “Sania was in my future. I had at least the next few years, knowing that I wasn’t going to be alone and I was going to have my partner in crime next to me,” she said, adding that she noticed several "red flags" about Khan's stories about divorcing Ahmed. “[Khan] was encouraged to stay, pleaded with to stay, by her family and ex-husband’s family,” Bordó said. “I didn’t see someone as spirited as her being so manipulated or controlled by someone but she was. He monitored what she wore. He was wary about who she hung out with, how she presented herself.”
“She was leaving. They hadn’t lived together for a long time. She had a home here with me. I was there to bring her home. There was no reconciling,” she explained. “This man did not go there to salvage a marriage. He went there with a gun for a reason. He knew I was coming. My social media and hers is completely public. It was his last opportunity and he took it," Bordó added.