Update: The brother of slain Pakistani model Qandeel Baloch confessed to strangling her to death for "family honour," The Associated Press reported.
Waseem Azeem was arrested by police on Sunday and then presented to the media. He told The Associated Press that he killed her after being taunted about her photos on social media.
"I was determined either to kill myself or kill her," Azeem said. He confessed to slipping her sedatives and then strangling her in her sleep.
"Money matters, but family honour is more important," said Azeem.
This story was originally published on July 17, 2016, 8:25 a.m.
A Pakistani model has allegedly been killed by her brother in what is being described as an honour killing, NBC News reported on Saturday.
Qandeel Baloch, 26, was found dead in her home in Pakistan on Friday, the victim of a suspected strangling. Police suspect her brother, Waseem Ahmed Azeem, who has since gone missing, caused her death, the New York Times reports.
Baloch was famous in socially conservative Pakistan for provocative selfies and posts on social media in which she talked about her sexuality. Her fame skyrocketed in March when she posted a video promising to do a striptease for the captain of the Pakistani cricket team if they won the championships.
Her brother had allegedly told her to end her social-media activity, according to The Guardian.
Baloch was outspoken about her social-media presence and identity. In a tweet from Thursday, she posted a photo of herself with the caption, “Life has taught me lessons in an early age…My Journey from a girl to a SELF DEPENDENT WOMEN [sic] was not easy.”
The Guardian reported that in one of her last interviews, she talked about being married off as a teenager to a man she described as “an animal.”
“It was my wish since I was a child to become something, to be able to stand on my own two feet, to do something for myself,” she said. The legal age for marriage in Pakistan is 18 for boys and 16 for girls.
So-called honour killings are often carried out against individuals, particularly women, who are perceived to have done something to bring shame to their family. In Pakistan, the killings are on the rise, with nearly 1,100 women killed in 2015, according to the BBC. An additional 900 suffered sexual violence and almost 800 attempted suicide.
In a tweet posted the day before her death, Baloch said that women had to stand together. “As a women [sic] we must stand up for ourselves,” she wrote. “As a women [sic] we must stand up for each other.”
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