Samia Sarwar (1970 – 6 April 1999) was a Pakistani woman who was shot dead in her lawyers' office in Lahore in an honour killing arranged by her parents.
Sarwar then sought the help of Lahore-based sisters Asma Jehangir and Hina Jilani, who were well-known human rights lawyers.
Samia Sarwar was born into an affluent and educated family based in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province.
Her father, Ghulam Sarwar Khan Mohmand, was not only a successful industrialist but also a prominent public figure, being the President of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce.
[3] After a frantic search, Sarwar's parents located her and threatened her with dire consequences if she did not come back quietly and returned to her husband.
She stated that she was intensely worried about her daughter and that meeting and conversing with Sarwar may help her and the rest of the family to accept her decision to divorce her husband and remarry.
Based on this understanding, Sarwar agreed to meet her mother at the offices shared by her two lawyers and mentors, the sisters Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani.
[1] This is because the Pakistani Penal Code recognizes the Islamic practices of qisas and diya, where the next-of-kin of a victim can accept restitution and grant forgiveness to the culprit.
"[4] The two left-wing activists, the feminist lawyers Hina Jilani and Asma Jahangir, were threatened with death for their defense of Samia Sarwar.
[8] The BBC programme comments that "The Pakistan Penal Code, amended in 1990 to embrace Islamic principles, has made it easier for those who kill women to get away with it".