A Taliban fighter executes a woman reportedly accused of adultery.
The background
Video of a young woman accused of adultery being executed by alleged Taliban fighters in Afghanistan has prompted worldwide outrage and sparked a nationwide manhunt for her killers.
The execution was captured on a shaky, handheld camera; in it, a bearded Talib declares, “We cannot forgive her, God tells us to finish her,” before another man puts seven bullets into the back of the squatting, burqa-clad woman’s head. The crowd cheers. According to local Afghan officials, the execution took place on 23 June, in the village of Qol-i-Heer, in the Shinwari district of Parwan Province, central Afghanistan, less than a two-hour drive from Kabul, reported The New York Times. This area, the paper said, was once considered safe enough for foreigners to drive through but now, even native Afghans are wary of entering the unstable territory. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the video and ordered a manhunt for the Taliban involved in it.
The video has also prompted comparisons to life in Afghanistan under the militant Islamist organization when it ruled the country from 1996 until 2001 – and reminded the world that the group is by no means finished.
Who was she and why was she executed?
The woman’s name, one official said, was Najiba and she was in her mid-20s; she had no children. Accounts differ as to why Najiba was killed: In the video, one of the Taliban fighters can be heard saying that the executioner is her husband, but another official told The New York Times that she was executed on trumped up charges of adultery because her real husband was part of a village militia that had killed a local Taliban leader. Another official told the paper that she had had affairs with multiple Taliban leaders, while still another said that she had run off with a Taliban fighter, who had in turn been accused of passing information to government forces.
The Taliban are by no means spent
Public executions of Afghan women were a “horrific but common sight” under Taliban rule in the 1990s, the Sydney Morning Herald reminded. But this video is more than just a terrible reminder of the bad old days: “The image of dozens of men watching compliantly as a Taliban official orders the death of the woman will be a blow to the US-led military coalition, which after a decade of costly war wishes to portray the Taliban as a spent force and Afghanistan as increasingly lawful.” The video comes amid increasing reports of violence against women in Afghanistan, and highlights “the unease Afghan women feel as international security forces prepare to leave.”
So what’s going to happen to the Afghan women?
As NATO troops prepare to withdraw from the war-torn central Asian nation in 2014, just a year and a half from now, others are using the video as an opportunity to talk about what it may mean for Afghan women. Under the Taliban, women were denied access to education and voting rights, CNN reminded. Even now, the broadcaster noted, Human Rights Watch reported that nearly nine out of 10 Afghan women suffer physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage at least once in their lifetimes. The US has condemned the execution as “cold-blooded murder” and the US Embassy in Kabul released a statement on Sunday, saying, “The protection of women’s rights is critical around the world, but especially in Afghanistan, where such rights were ignored, attacked and eroded under Taliban rule.” But condemnations aren’t assurances and observers are remain worried.
Every faith should condemn this execution
In a letter to The Australian, David Maitland wrote the video should engender a “cry of outrage against such barbarism”, and should become a focal point of denunciation for all religions. “Every religious leader is obligated to publically denounce the violence and coercion rampant in fundamentalism. Staying silent is acquiescence in the light of murder and mayhem done in the name of religion.”
Warning: This video contains graphic images.
More on the Taliban
- Is 2012 the year of the Taliban? Islamist insurgency opens office in Qatar
- Secret Afghan talks leaked, suspended
- Obama announces troop withdrawal
- Remember Afghanistan?
