A-listers unleash fury on IG after Sana Yousaf’s murder
It has happened again.
There are no words that can fully convey the raw horror of the senseless murder of 17-year-old influencer Sana Yousaf. On Monday evening, a girl on the brink of adulthood embracing the promise of all the milestones her eighteenth year would bring, was gunned down in her home on what should have been a birthday celebration.
Why? As revealed by video press conferences from investigating officers, the shocking – but paradoxically unsurprising – answer is rooted in rejection. Sana’s fresh-faced youthful perkiness lit up the screens of her over a million followers across both TikTok and Instagram combined. Along the way, this young influencer crossed paths with a man she had no interest in meeting. Ill equipped to deal with a ‘no’, that man broke into Sana’s home on her 17th birthday. We all know what happened next.
Mahira, Sajal take to IG
Vocal showbiz A-listers with a keen finger on the pulse for justice rose united in horror across Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) to condemn this latest instance of gender-based violence – made all the more horrific by Sana’s age and the cruel irony of her murder coinciding with her birthday.
Mahira Khan, taking a horrified pause from promoting her upcoming Eidul Azha film Love Guru, wrote on Instagram Stories, “Can’t get myself to stop thinking about Sana Yousaf. A 17-year-old beautiful girl. She had just blown out candles, made wishes, maybe danced a little. And then in seconds gone. Shot dead. Over a bloody ‘No’.”
Digging to the rotten core of a society where a feminine rejection can lead to murder, the Maula Jatt star continued, “But is it really about one moment? One second? One word? It’s not. It’s the system. The way we’ve raised men to believe they are owed something – attention, affection, obedience. The way we fail, again and again, to protect the girls who dare to have a voice, a choice.”
As with any incidence of female murder, misogynist comments across Facebook under the news of Sana’s murder ranged from “Yes, every female TikTokker deserves this” to “These TikTokkers advertising their stupidity make people leave Islam.”
With such fuel for the fire, Mahira was far from the only Pakistani star making public her disgust and despair over Sana’s tragic murder as fellow actor Sajal Ali also turned to IG Stories to register her horror.
“A girl lost her life simply for saying no. What kind of world are we living in?” wrote the Dil Wali Gali Mein star under the banner of the haunting hashtag #JusticeForSanaYousaf. “The lack of empathy is terrifying. I just hope that we, as a society, learn to truly feel for others. To respect boundaries. To value life. May we grow in empathy, in understanding, and in basic humanity. #JusticeForSanaYousaf.”
Mawra, Maya join in
An equally enraged Mawra Hocane pointed to the devastating frequency with which women in Pakistan fall afoul of men they no longer wish to liaise with – and the justification offered up by social media users hinting that they asked for it.
“Another story we will forget in a few days, when a new story takes over — we’ve failed as a society, as humans. I see no return from this point,” lamented the Jafaa star. “I hear victim blaming. I hear how a woman should’ve behaved to evade this. It’s all of us. We’ve contributed to men not being able to hear a NO!”
Pointing fingers at an entertainment industry that perpetuates problematic societal norms, Mawra added, “Our content still romanticses forced relationships, toxic love, dominating male behaviours. Well, this is the impact. A 17-year-old was killed because a boy thought it would be okay to do so when rejected. I hope and pray that the authorities make an example out of the perpetrator.”
Similarly, Sunn Mere Dil actor Maya Ali, also taking to IG Stories, wrote that although she had never known Sana’s family, she, too, shared in the vicarious grief felt by every woman who knows that it could have been them.
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