Sania Khan (1993 – July 18, 2022) was a Pakistani American woman who was murdered by her estranged husband, Raheel Ahmad, in Chicago after she shared her divorce experience on TikTok.
[2][4][6][7] Her popularity on social media and the high profile murder put a spotlight on domestic violence and stigmatization of divorce in Pakistani Muslim immigrant communities around the world.
[14] She also discussed how divorce and domestic violence are taboo topics in the South Asian community and how she had pushback from her some of her own family about her decisions.
[18] The remaining funds were originally intended to be donated to Sakhi for South Asian Women and the Peaceful Families Project, two South Asian anti-domestic violence organizations, though ultimately the campaign organizer decided to return the funds due to conflict with Khan's family members.
[7] Friends of Khan, Cora-Leigh O'Neal and James Cummins, started a scholarship fund in her honor[3][7] as The Sania Khan Memorial Scholarship Fund for female students with a GPA of at least 3.5 graduating from the Chattanooga School for Arts & Sciences and who intend to pursue a degree in fine arts at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
[3] Khan's death sparked an international conversation amongst South Asian social media communities regarding gender-based domestic violence within family and culture.