As a Pakistani person, I’m always a little nervous when something about Pakistan goes viral in the U.S. (except when it’s about Zayn Malik, of course). The internet is not kind, and it’s always a little uncomfortable watching jokes about your own people. The memes come fast, the generalizations come faster, and before you know it, someone’s explaining Pakistan to you like… well, like you’re not Pakistani.
So when I saw that a random American woman was suddenly all over my FYP because she allegedly flew to Karachi to marry a guy she met online, only to get rejected and refuse to leave, I knew this was going to get messy. The story has everything: an unexpected romance, a twist involving catfishing, and a main character whose erratic behavior is raising serious concerns. TikTok has turned her into a spectacle, but the reality is much more complicated — and frankly, not that funny.
Who Is The American Woman In Pakistan?
@murtazaviewsAmerican woman who travelled to Pakistan for love falls ill. Onija Andrew Robbins handed over to welfare organisation after hotel and guesthouse refused to accommodate her♬ original sound – Murtaza Ali Shah
Her name is Onijah Andrew Robinson, she’s 32 years old, and she reportedly arrived in Karachi last October with plans to marry a 19-year-old named Nidal Ahmed Memon. If that age gap wasn’t already a red flag, things only got weirder from there.
According to TikTokers who have been breaking down the situation online, Onijah had catfished Nidal using filters that made her look like a blonde white woman. When she showed up in Pakistan, Nidal’s mother was apparently not thrilled and promptly locked Robinson out of their home before disappearing with the whole family. And I do mean disappearing — no one seems to know where they went.
Why Is Onijah Andrew Robinson In Pakistan?
Well, because she won’t leave. After getting shut out by Nidals’s family, Robinson allegedly camped outside his apartment complex, which is when the Pakistani media took notice. She then started holding press conferences where she made increasingly bizarre claims, like that she’s actually from Pakistan and that she and Nidal would be having their baby in Dubai. (For the record, she is not from Pakistan, and she is also not pregnant.)
Enter Ramzan Chhipa, a philanthropist who stepped in to help Robinson return to the U.S. The problem? She doesn’t want to go. In one particularly chaotic press conference, she switched between yelling at Chhipa and demanding money from reporters, saying that her plan was to reconstruct the entire country. She was asking for $100K “or more” and $20K by that week. As someone who knows personally how tightfisted the Pakistani government is, this part did make me chuckle.
As much as this sounds like a reality show gone wrong, Onijah’s behavior seems to be more than just a case of bad decision-making. According to the Daily Mail, someone claiming to be her son posted a (now-deleted video) saying that she suffers from bipolar disorder. Suddenly all of those memes making fun of her don’t seem so funny, huh?
Is She Still In Pakistan?
Yep. And despite her tourist visa expiring, she’s not being forced out — yet. The governor of Sindh province granted her a humanitarian visa, which is set to expire on February 11. Until then, she’s reportedly still under the care of Chhipa, who has been trying to get her on a flight home.
Of course, TikTok has had a field day with this entire situation, turning Onijah into a meme and cracking jokes at her expense. But if you zoom out for a second, this really isn’t as funny as the internet is making it seem. A woman with possible mental health issues is stranded in a foreign country, and the story has spiraled into viral chaos.
If there is any good to come out of this situation, it’s probably just that people are learning about how hospitable Pakistani people are. Had this been someone coming to, oh, I don’t know, say the U.S. in this political climate and refusing to leave… well, let’s just say I doubt the story would have been ongoing for weeks.
