‘Now everyone wants to go to Pakistan’: American woman moves to Pakistan to marry a teenager, turns a whole country’s image around instead

If you’ve heard any of the viral sound bites of a woman asking for ludicrous amounts of money, you’ve come across the now-iconic American woman in Pakistan. Whether she’s demanding 20k or more, asking for land, or confirming that her Pakistani passport is in the works, this woman has held TikTok (and the nation of Pakistan) captive for weeks. 

As if 2025 hasn’t already been bizarre enough, Onijah Robinson, an American woman who traveled to Pakistan to marry a teenager, is the most viral moment of the month. We can thank TikToker Bilal Hassan for being the unofficial global correspondent in Karachi and translating this entire saga for the world, so let’s dive into the story. 

Introducing Onijah Robinson

Onijah Andrew Robinson is a 33-year-old American woman who reportedly fell in love with a 19-year-old Pakistani boy named Nidal Ahmed Memon. Onijah and Ahmed met online, where Onijah was allegedly catfishing him with a filter that made her look blonde and white (Onijah is a Black woman), and Nidal fell so hard that he proposed. That’s right, they got married, but that isn’t even the wildest part of this story. 

Crazy in love Nidal decided to invite his blushing bride to his home country, but his family wasn’t having it. His mother allegedly locked Onijah out of the house when she saw that she was a Black woman, took her son, and disappeared— literally. Their whereabouts are still a mystery, and Onijah has been making enough headlines on her own, that no one’s asking. After getting ditched, Onijah set up camp outside Nidal’s apartment complex, and this is when things start to get crazy.

People started to notice her presence, and the attention of locals and neighbors soon turned to media outlets and news sites, before she finally caught the attention of Pakistani philanthropist Ramzan Chhipa. And then the world found out that Onijah Robinson is a bit of a character.

After refusing to talk to the reporters who were hounding her for days, she finally started speaking, and what she had to say cracked the internet up. She began by demanding money before telling her story, but this quickly escalated to some crazy claims, including her plans to “reconstruct Pakistan. Onijah also demanded “100K or more” and “20K by this week in my pockets in cash.” With the help of Chippa, she started holding press conferences, where she made her claims, garnering even more attention. 

Onijah’s behavior was clearly erratic and many people speculated that she might not be of sound mind. A report from the Daily Mail also alleged that someone claiming to be her son posted a video explaining that Onijah has bipolar disorder. The video has now been deleted so no one can verify it, but it does seem likely. You would think her behavior and actions would lead to widespread hate, but the people of Pakistan shocked the whole world by not only embracing her, but actually giving her some money and protecting her. Pakistanis started referring to her as their sister-in-law, and more people were laughing with her than at her.

Onijah’s global impact 

Onijah simply refused to leave Pakistan, especially after she started going viral. The response to her presence in Pakistan has been strange, to say the least. At one point, older Pakistani men started making proposals to Onijah, since she kept saying she was looking for her husband. Onijah herself claimed to already be a Pakistani citizen and to be pregnant with a baby she planned to birth in Dubai, neither of which were true. Video and audio clips from her press conferences have become memes all over the world, and despite sometimes being rude, most people seem to love her.

Thanks to Chippa’s influence, she was able to get a humanitarian visa from the governor of the Sindh province after her tourist visa expired. The humanitarian visa is set to expire on Feb. 11, but it looks like Onijah has already bailed for the next season of her adventure. 

Latest reports claim that Onijah was put on a flight to America which had a layover in Dubai, but decided to stay there instead. According to our favorite Onijah correspondent, Onijah headed straight for a Pakistani neighborhood in Dubai and is already charming the people there. All we can do now is stay tuned for the next updates in Keeping up with Onijah season 2: Onijah in Dubai.