Shivangi Sinha
Sania Khan was going through a difficult divorce in 2022. She believed that sharing her experience could help other women facing similar situations, particularly given the moral judgments and social taboos around divorce in the South Asian community. She turned to TikTok to share her journey, quickly gaining about 20,000 followers. In July 2022, she was found dead in her apartment in Chicago, Illinois. The incident sparked significant public discourse and had a notable impact on social dialogues. ID’s ‘Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders’ episode ‘TikTok Terror’ focuses on her murder and the events leading up to it.
Sania Khan Was Thriving on TikTok When She Was Killed
Sania Khan was born in 1993 to Haider Farooq Khan and Shazia Khan. Her parents had migrated from Pakistan and worked hard to build a life for themselves in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Sania, a first-generation American, was a blessing for them, arriving after they had moved to the US. She was an exemplary student and daughter, graduating from Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences with high honors and grand aspirations for her future. Sania decided to attend the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, where she double-majored in psychology and women’s studies, aiming to use her academic prowess to make a meaningful impact on the world.
Sania was surrounded by many friends who admired her authenticity, honesty, and selflessness. In 2016, she met Raheel Ahmad, whom she saw as an ideal partner. He was from the same community, which was important to her family. Despite their primarily long-distance relationship, she felt she knew him well. Therefore, they decided to get married in June 2021. By this time, Sania had begun working as a photographer and felt she had found her passion. She wanted to help people fall in love with themselves by seeing themselves through her lens.
Sania soon started covering weddings, maternity shoots, baby showers, and other milestones for clients who paid her well, but she was always ready to do it for a friend, too. After getting married, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, and began building a life for herself. However, happiness was short-lived for the young couple. In December 2021, Sania filed for divorce, with the final hearing scheduled for August 2022. Before she could begin a new chapter in her life, she was found dead in her home on July 18, 2022. She had been shot in the back of her head and succumbed to her injuries before any medical assistance could be rendered. A 9mm handgun caused the fatal wound, and the police determined it was a homicide.
A Welfare Check Led to Sania Khan’s Killer
After Sania Khan got married, her friends noticed changes in her behavior. She confided that her marriage wasn’t working out, feeling like she didn’t fully know the man she had married. Having been in a primarily long-distance relationship, living together revealed her husband’s unaddressed mental health issues. She mentioned that he had an unhealthy sleep cycle and behaved oddly towards her. Despite her urging him to seek therapy, he was reluctant, and she began to feel the heavy burden of his mental health struggles.
Things reached a breaking point for Sania in December 2021 when an incident with her husband made her fear for her life, prompting her to file for divorce. While some friends and family supported her decision, many others urged her to stay in the marriage due to the stigma surrounding divorce in the South Asian community. Sania faced social alienation and taunts for choosing her safety over societal expectations. After mustering the courage to leave her husband, she remained fearful and took precautionary measures by filing a restraining order against Raheel and changing the locks on her house.
Her divorce was set to be finalized by August 2022, and Sania decided to use her experiences to support other women in similar situations. She began creating TikTok videos discussing topics like divorce and domestic violence, mainly focusing on the South Asian community and her feelings of lacking support from her own family. Her message resonated with many, and she amassed around 20,000 followers. By this time, Raheel had relocated to Alpharetta, Georgia, while Sania remained in Chicago, Illinois. She was planning to move back to her hometown in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
On July 18, 2022, one of Raheel’s relatives reported him missing. The local police contacted the Chicago police, requesting a welfare check at Sania’s house to see if he was there. When the police entered the house, they found Sania dead and Raheel inside the home. He had shot himself and left a suicide note, claiming he was going to kill himself and Sania because he couldn’t cope with the divorce.
Raheel Ahmad is No Longer Alive
Raheel Ahmad was still alive when the police found him, but he passed away by the time he reached Northwestern Hospital. His family and close ones claimed that he had left home to attempt a reconciliation with Sania Khan. She was planning to leave for her hometown on July 21, 2022, and Raheel felt this might be his last chance to mend things. They suggested it might have been a crime of passion. However, Sania’s close friends had a different perspective. They alleged that Raheel had always shown violent tendencies, and the fact that he traveled from Georgia to Chicago with his gun indicated premeditation for a murder-suicide rather than an impulsive act. As of today, neither Raheel nor Sania’s families have made any public comments since the incident.
