Zakiyah Hana Ali
December 29, 1994 - September 16, 2025
December 29, 1994 - September 16, 2025
#KiyahsLaw
The Domestic Violence Offender Registry
The Federation of International Gender and Human Rights (FIGHR) is a dedicated Social Impact Organization (SIO) committed to advocating for the rights, protection, and empowerment of women, girls, and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Our mission is to foster a world where gender equality is not just an ideal, but a reality—where every individual, regardless of gender, has access to justice, safety, and opportunities for a thriving future.
#KiyahsLaw
A Victim-Centered Framework for Gun Violence Accountability, Transparency, and Prevention#KiyahsLaw is a survivor-informed, policy-driven public safety initiative dedicated to recalibrating how the United States confronts gun violence—by centering victims not as afterthoughts, but as the primary stakeholders in prevention, accountability, and systemic reform.
Born from irreparable loss and sustained by evidence-based advocacy, #KiyahsLaw advances a legislative and civic architecture that recognizes gun violence as both a criminal justice issue and a profound public health failure. The project rejects symbolic gestures and instead calls for enforceable, data-transparent, and victim-visible solutions that interrupt cycles of lethal harm before they metastasize.
At its core, #KiyahsLaw insists on a paradigm shift: from offender invisibility to offender accountability, and from victim erasure to victim recognition.
#KiyahsLaw
A Victim-Centered Framework for Gun Violence Accountability, Transparency, and Prevention#KiyahsLaw is a survivor-informed, policy-driven public safety initiative dedicated to recalibrating how the United States confronts gun violence—by centering victims not as afterthoughts, but as the primary stakeholders in prevention, accountability, and systemic reform.
Born from irreparable loss and sustained by evidence-based advocacy, #KiyahsLaw advances a legislative and civic architecture that recognizes gun violence as both a criminal justice issue and a profound public health failure. The project rejects symbolic gestures and instead calls for enforceable, data-transparent, and victim-visible solutions that interrupt cycles of lethal harm before they metastasize.
At its core, #KiyahsLaw insists on a paradigm shift: from offender invisibility to offender accountability, and from victim erasure to victim recognition.
The Legacy...
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On September 14, 2025, my daughter, Zakiyah Hana Ali, was shot in the head, following a heated argument inside an Intown Suites in Columbia, South Carolina. She was left there—alone, bleeding, and fighting for her life.
Zakiyah was rushed to Prisma Health Richland, where physicians worked relentlessly to save her. For two agonizing days, she held on. On September 16, at 3:55 p.m., my daughter took her final breath. She was 30 years old. She was also the mother of two young sons—just seven and five years old—who will now grow up in a world forever altered by violence that never should have reached her.
The man charged with her murder, Jerry Lane Pillows-Williams, is currently held without bail. He had been seeing Zakiyah for approximately four months. No one in our family knew him. No one had met him. No one had even heard his name.
That silence haunts us.
We now understand that his past—once uncovered—would have made his presence unacceptable and alarming. His history includes convictions and open cases of domestic violence, information buried in law-enforcement files inaccessible to the public. Had this information been visible, had it been searchable, had it been known, Zakiyah might still be alive.
Many survivors sense danger but lack proof. Many are afraid to speak. Many, like my daughter, are left to discover the truth the hardest way possible—when it is already too late. This was not merely a crime against one woman. It was a cowardly act of domestic violence that could happen to anyone’s daughter, sister, or friend.
Too often, perpetrators hide in plain sight—shielded by privacy loopholes, fragmented records, and institutional silence—until their violence becomes fatal.
To honor Zakiyah’s life and to prevent future loss, I have launched #Kiyah’sLaw, the first proposed Domestic Violence Offender Registry Act (DVORA) in South Carolina. Modeled after the Sexual Offender Registry, this law would establish a free, searchable public database identifying individuals convicted of violent domestic offenses against family members or protected persons.
Under #Kiyah’sLaw, individuals convicted of two violent domestic offenses—or a single offense resulting in the death of a partner—would be publicly listed as Domestic Violence Perpetrators, allowing people entering new relationships to make informed, potentially life-saving decisions.
Domestic violence devastates millions each year, leaving generational scars that extend far beyond the immediate victim. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that one in four women and one in nine men experience severe intimate partner violence in their lifetimes. Transparency saves lives. Silence costs them.
Zakiyah’s death must not be reduced to another statistic. Her sons deserve a safer world. Her name deserves to stand for protection, not tragedy.
I urge the legislators and Governor of South Carolina to act—now. Let this state lead with courage. Let Zakiyah be the last name added to an ever-growing list of lives lost to preventable domestic violence.
Stand with us.
Sign this petition.
Help transform justice for survivors—and honor those we have already lost.
Zakiyah was rushed to Prisma Health Richland, where physicians worked relentlessly to save her. For two agonizing days, she held on. On September 16, at 3:55 p.m., my daughter took her final breath. She was 30 years old. She was also the mother of two young sons—just seven and five years old—who will now grow up in a world forever altered by violence that never should have reached her.
The man charged with her murder, Jerry Lane Pillows-Williams, is currently held without bail. He had been seeing Zakiyah for approximately four months. No one in our family knew him. No one had met him. No one had even heard his name.
That silence haunts us.
We now understand that his past—once uncovered—would have made his presence unacceptable and alarming. His history includes convictions and open cases of domestic violence, information buried in law-enforcement files inaccessible to the public. Had this information been visible, had it been searchable, had it been known, Zakiyah might still be alive.
Many survivors sense danger but lack proof. Many are afraid to speak. Many, like my daughter, are left to discover the truth the hardest way possible—when it is already too late. This was not merely a crime against one woman. It was a cowardly act of domestic violence that could happen to anyone’s daughter, sister, or friend.
Too often, perpetrators hide in plain sight—shielded by privacy loopholes, fragmented records, and institutional silence—until their violence becomes fatal.
To honor Zakiyah’s life and to prevent future loss, I have launched #Kiyah’sLaw, the first proposed Domestic Violence Offender Registry Act (DVORA) in South Carolina. Modeled after the Sexual Offender Registry, this law would establish a free, searchable public database identifying individuals convicted of violent domestic offenses against family members or protected persons.
Under #Kiyah’sLaw, individuals convicted of two violent domestic offenses—or a single offense resulting in the death of a partner—would be publicly listed as Domestic Violence Perpetrators, allowing people entering new relationships to make informed, potentially life-saving decisions.
Domestic violence devastates millions each year, leaving generational scars that extend far beyond the immediate victim. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that one in four women and one in nine men experience severe intimate partner violence in their lifetimes. Transparency saves lives. Silence costs them.
Zakiyah’s death must not be reduced to another statistic. Her sons deserve a safer world. Her name deserves to stand for protection, not tragedy.
I urge the legislators and Governor of South Carolina to act—now. Let this state lead with courage. Let Zakiyah be the last name added to an ever-growing list of lives lost to preventable domestic violence.
Stand with us.
Sign this petition.
Help transform justice for survivors—and honor those we have already lost.
Are you ready to get involved?
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Please sign the Petition and forward it along
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Please give as you are moved.
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The Problem:
A System That Sees Guns, but Not the Wounded. Gun violence policy in the United States has historically privileged abstract debates over concrete human outcomes. While firearms are regulated inconsistently across jurisdictions, victims are rendered statistically anonymous—reduced to numbers without narrative, impact without continuity, and deaths without durable policy consequence. This structural neglect produces three critical failures:
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The Solution:
Legislative Visibility as Violence Prevention. #KiyahsLaw advances a victim-forward policy model that integrates public safety, due process, and human dignity. The initiative supports statutory mechanisms that:
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HER NONPROFIT...COMING SOON...
Other Domestic and International Supporters
Policy Prospect: A Measured, Enforceable Path Forward#KiyahsLaw is designed to operate at the intersection of:
1. Public safety 2. Constitutional restraint 3. Human rights norms 4. Victim-centered justice The initiative is positioned for adoption through: A. State-level legislative pilots B. Municipal public safety compacts C. Federal policy alignment discussions D. Cross-sector partnerships with public health, legal, and survivor advocacy institutions It offers lawmakers a defensible, data-literate, and morally coherent pathway to address gun violence without resorting to legislative paralysis or reactionary overreach. |
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#KiyahsLaw is not a memorial alone—it is a mandate.
A mandate to: 1. See victims as policy participants 2. Treat preventable violence as a governance failure 3. Replace silence with structure 4. Replace grief with guardrails Gun violence is not inevitable. Victim invisibility is not neutral. And legislative inaction is not benign. #KiyahsLaw exists to ensure that loss produces law, and that law produces life. |
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