Her Father Took Her on a Trip to Pakistan. The Police Say It Was a Trap.
The New York Times
Hira Anwar was pulled out of middle school for what she thought was a vacation. Her death is being investigated as a so-called honor killing.
When Hira Anwar’s father dropped her off every morning at middle school, she would duck out of his car and scamper up the steps of Public School 16 in Yonkers, N.Y., the Westchester County town where she grew up.
Inside, Hira would greet her principal and catch up with her classmates, sharing tracks by her favorite band, Chase Atlantic, or TikTok videos of the singer Zayn Malik, whom everyone knew she had a particular crush on because he was of Pakistani descent, as she was.
Then, a few months ago, something changed: When her father’s car was out of sight of the school, Hira, 14, would remove her hijab. Hira’s principal took notice, and, concerned that she was being bullied to conform, she pulled Hira aside to check in.
Hira said it was the opposite, according to her principal: She finally felt free to express herself.
That freedom did not last long.
In late January, while on a vacation with her father to his hometown, Quetta, Pakistan, Hira was shot to death in front of her father’s family home. Shortly after, her father, Anwar ul-Haq Rajpoot, tearfully told the police that a random attack had taken his daughter’s life. But the Pakistani police now say that the shooting, and in fact the entire trip, was a trap that he orchestrated.
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