Qandeel Baloch Biography

Qandeel Baloch was born Fouzia Azeem, on March 1, 1990, in the Dera Ghazi Khan District, Punjab, Pakistan, to Muhammad Azeem and Anwar Bibi. Hers was a lower-middle-class family, and her parents worked on farms to make ends meet. They were a conservative Muslim family. Qandeel grew up with six brothers and two sisters.

The family lived in a small village in the Pakistani province of Punjab. As a kid, Qandeel loved outdoor sports. In Pakistan, especially among the more conservative Muslim families, it is customary to wear a “burqa.” However, she would always fight with her parents and refuse to cover up.

Being an active kid, she became interested in the prospect of a show-business career when her family bought their first TV in the early 2000s. She watched films and TV serials on the TV set and was attracted to the entertainment world. She was also bored of their village life and confessed to one of her sisters that she would someday dance and sing and be like the “city girls.”

She also dreamed of becoming an independent girl since her childhood. Watching boys ride bicycles, she once demanded one for herself. She completed her early education from a local school. As she stepped into her mid-teenage years, her parents prepared her for marriage.

She resisted getting married so early, but her parents did not listen to her. A match was arranged with one of her mother’s cousins, Aashiq Hussain, when she was 18 years old.

Qandeel Baloch married to honor her family’s wishes but was never happy with her husband, Aashiq Hussain. She later claimed that her husband was a “savage” and often beat her up. However, her husband denied the allegations. They also had a son in 2009.

While living in her husband’s house, she still dreamed of living in a big city and acting in TV dramas. When her husband denied her the permission to follow her dreams, she fled from the house and took shelter in Multan, a nearby big city.

She then moved to a women’s shelter. However, food was scarce there, and the living conditions were not good. She found it extremely difficult to take care of her son amid these conditions and handed him over to her husband. She hoped to get back for her son someday when she would become rich and famous. She also asked her parents for help, but they denied, as she had “dishonored” the family.

Over the next few years, she moved to different cities and did many jobs. She once worked as a bus hostess and sold snacks to passengers. In 2012, at the age of 22, she finally saved enough to move to Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial and mass-media hub.

Qandeel Baloch began auditioning for roles in films and TV right away. She appeared in many small roles in soap operas. She was also in touch with her parents back then and asked her mother to watch her on TV. Unable to bag meaty parts on TV, she opted to pursue her second dream, which was that of becoming a singer.

In late 2013, she auditioned for the Pakistani singing reality TV show Pakistani Idol in Lahore. Her audition, which was telecast later, showed the judges making fun of her singing abilities and her high-pitched voice. She, however, later claimed that the audition was fake and that she was paid to do the “publicity stunt.”

Around the same time, social media was catching up with the Pakistani youth. Qandeel Baloch created her online profiles and began uploading her videos and pictures on them. She used many unique catchphrases that caused her popularity to rise exponentially, not only in Pakistan but in India, too.

She gained fame for her bold social-media posts, in which she was often seen wearing shorts. Pakistan is a highly conservative country. Thus, her social-media presence was mostly met with criticism. However, there was also a section of Pakistani youth that was impressed by her. She was dubbed as the “Pakistani Kim Kardashian,” and many liberal publications also branded her the “face of Pakistani feminism,” as she went against society’s norms to do what pleased her.

In March 2016, her meeting with the Pakistani religious leader Mufti Abdul Qawi to discuss her faith raised a storm in the country. Mufti was suspended from his position, and Qandeel was further criticized. The controversy had her appearing on many big news channels, where she argued with Muslim clerics to defend her “Western” and “progressive” way of life.

The same year, she received more criticism from the media when she promised that she would do a strip dance if Pakistan wins in a cricket match against India. She released a trailer about the same. This act also made her popular in India, and she was compared to Indian model Poonam Pandey, who had made similar promises to her fans.

Her fast-growing social-media fame also won her many career opportunities. She was offered to endorse many products through her social-media posts.

The narrow-minded section of Pakistanis accused her of indulging in prostitution, but she clearly denied the allegations and said that she avoided modeling because she wanted to be away from the sleaze that is prevalent in the industry.

Qandeel Baloch also wanted to make a name for herself in India and work in the relatively liberal Hindi film industry. She once wanted to marry former Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan, who is the current prime minister of Pakistan. She stood outside his house for days, demanding to be allowed to enter the house. News channels covered the entire incident.

By late 2015, she had become affluent and had rented a posh house for her parents in Multan. She also took care of all their expenses.

The after-effects of her meeting with Mufti refused to die down. She continuously received death threats and also called up her parents many times, worried.

In mid-2016, Qandeel Baloch started visiting her parents’ Multan house more often. One of her brothers, Waseem Azeem, was also staying with them. However, he was enraged at his sister over her social-media antics and had thus told his family that he was going to kill her for bringing a bad name to the family. Nevertheless, his anger seemed to have subsided over time.

On July 15, 2016, while Qandeel slept, she was first drugged and then asphyxiated with a pillow by her brother. Waseem was arrested the next day, and he confessed to the “honor killing.” He was given a life sentence.

The murder caused a huge uproar in the media, and many progressive Pakistanis spoke against it. Many international public figures, including British Prime Minister Theresa May, too, spoke about it. However, many Pakistanis supported Qandeel’s murder by her own brother.