Anyone knows Farkhunda? I was randomly searching on website and I saw her name and incident which attracts me. Below of this is what I had read about her.
Background
Farkhunda was an observant Muslim who
wore a veil (hijab).
At the time of the attack, she had just finished a degree in religious
studies and was preparing to take a teaching post Her
name means "auspicious" and "jubilation" in Persian
language.
The attack
In a still frame from a video captured and widely
disseminated on social media and in the news, a bloodied
Farkhunda appears to plead with her attackers before she is knocked down.
Farkhunda had previously been arguing with a mullah named
Zainuddin, in front of a mosque where she worked as a religious teacher about
his practice of selling charms at the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque, the Shrine of
the King of Two Swords, a religious shrine in Kabul. During this argument,
Zainuddin reportedly accused her of burning
the Quran. She responded
"I am a Muslim, and Muslims do not burn the
Quran!"
Hundreds of angry civilians flocked to the shrine upon
overhearing the mullah's accusation. Police arrived and attempted to lead
Farkhunda to a local precinct building one mile away, but she refused, asking
for a female police officer to accompany her. The mob was able to drag
Farkhunda away into the street where they knocked her to the ground and began
beating and kicking her. More police arrived, firing warning shots into the air
and temporarily dispersing the crowd. They moved her into the shrine in an
attempt to shield her. As the crowd grew in size and rumors that she was
working with Americans began circulating, the mob attempted to storm the
shrine's walls. Police hoisted her onto the roof of the building in an escape
attempt, but Farkhunda slipped and fell into the crowd.[
The mob dragged Farkhunda into the street and savagely beat
and stomped her. She was bludgeoned with sticks and rocks outside the
mosque, then placed into the road and run over with a car, dragging her body
300 feet. Police offered no resistance, and directed traffic around the scene. The
mob then dragged her body to the nearby bank of the Kabul
River, took turns stoning her and set her on fire; her body was soaked in
blood and would not burn, so the crowd ripped off articles of their own
clothing to ignite and maintain the fire.
Farkhunda's parents said the killing was instigated by the
mullah Farkhunda had been speaking to. According to Tolo News he
loudly accused her of burning the Quran "in order to save his job and
life."[ An eyewitness said that the mob was chanting anti-American and anti-democratic slogans while beating
Farkhunda. The mob was captured on video accusing of her of working with
Americans, and of being a French embassy worker.
Reactions
- -Public reaction in Afghanistan
A number of prominent public officials turned to Facebook
immediately after the death to endorse the murder. The official spokesman for
the Kabul police Hashmat Stanekzai, for instance, wrote that Farkhunda
“thought, like several other unbelievers, that this kind of action and insult
will get them U.S. or European citizenship. But before reaching their target,
they lost their life.” The Deputy Minister for Culture and Information Simin
Ghazal Hasanzada also approved the execution of a woman “working for the
infidels.” Zalmai Zabuli, chief of the complaints commission of the upper house
of parliament, posted a picture of Farkhunda with this message: “This is the
horrible and hated person who was punished by our Muslim compatriots for her
action. Thus, they proved to her masters that Afghans want only Islam and
cannot tolerate imperialism, apostasy, and spies.”[
After it was revealed that she did not burn the Quran, the
public reaction in Afghanistan turned to shock and anger. Hundreds of
protesters took to the streets of Kabul on 23 March protesting her brutal
death. Protesters marched from where the attack began to where Farkhunda was
thrown in the river. A number of women on the march wore masks of her bloodied
face while others condemned the government for failing to bring security to
Afghanistan. Shukria Barakzai, a member of parliament representing Kabul
Province and a longtime women’s rights activist, told Al Jazeera that
her killing had triggered the city and the rest of the country to think about
women's rights. She said: "This is not a male or female issue, this
is a human issue and we will not stop until the killers are brought to
justice." Roshan Siren, a former member of
parliament, said that the murder highlights violence against women in the
country, and has become a rallying point for a younger generation of women to
campaign for "the protection and progress of women."
The woman's father complained that police could have done
more to save Farkhunda.
- -Protests
On March 23, hundreds of women protested the attack,
demanding that the government prosecute those responsible for Farkhunda's
death. The protest was organized by Solidarity Party of Afghanistan and
residents of Kabul. Farkhunda's death has also become a rallying point
for women's rights activists in Afghanistan. On
March 24, thousands of people protested the attack in front of the Afghan
Ministry of Justice in Kabul. On April 27, Leena Alam and
her co- actors re-enacted the attack during a protest in Kabul, in what Afghan
observers called an unprecedented case of a public theatrical performance
commemorating a woman's death.
-
-Official response in Afghanistan
Afghan president Ashraf
Ghani ordered an investigation into the incident and, in a statement
released by his office, condemned the "act of extreme violence". He
described the killing as "heinous". He also said that Farkhunda's
death revealed that Afghanistan's police were too focused on the Taliban
insurgency in the country and not focused enough on local policing.
Nine men who were seen in the video of Farkhunda's murder
on social media were subsequently detained. The
Interior Ministry later reported that 28 people were arrested and 13 police
officers suspended as part of investigations. Hashmat Stanikzai, an official
spokesman for the Kabul police who publicly endorsed the murder, was sacked
over comments that he made on social media supporting Farkhunda's killers.
The Afghanistan Ministry of Hajj and Religious
Affairs announced that it found no evidence that Farkhunda had burned
the Quran.
-
-International reaction
The European
Union condemned the attack. A spokeswoman for European Union foreign
policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement that "the killing of
Ms. Farkhunda... is a tragic reminder of dangers women face from false
accusations and the lack of justice in Afghanistan." She added, "We
all hope that [those] responsible can be brought to justice." The United
States also condemned the murder, with a statement from its embassy in
Kabul calling for "those responsible to be brought to justice so such
heinous acts will never occur again".
Global Times China columnist Farman Nawaz wrote
"Choosing rulers through the ballot box is a positive sign for the
country, but the survival, and even growth, of extremist mentality even after
suffering from the barbarism of extremist groups reflects a critical failure by
Afghan political parties". Afghan
American historian Ali A Olomi argued that Farkhunda's murder
demonstrated the endurance of an underlying culture of violence and devaluation
of human life that comes out of generations of Afghans being raised during a
war and facing oppression.
-
-Reaction from Islamic scholars
A.
In Afghanistan
The day after the murder, certain imams and mullahs endorsed
the killing during Friday prayer services in their mosques. One of them, the
influential Maulavi Ayaz Niazi of the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque, warned the
government that any attempt to arrest the men who had "defended the
Quran" would lead to an uprising.
After it was revealed she did not burn the Quran,
senior Islamic scholars in Afghanistan expressed
outrage over the incident. Ahmad Ali Jebreili, a member of Afghanistan's Ulama Council set for
administering Islamic law, condemned the attack, accusing it of
contravening Islam.
Haji Noor Ahmad, a local cleric, said "People come and execute a person
arbitrarily; this is totally prohibited and unlawful. However, some justified
her killing and were met with public anger."
B.
Abroad
Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, a prominent,
conservative, Islamic scholar, expressed horror on his Facebook page
and said "A sign of how truly civilized a nation is, is how it treats its
women. May Allah restore the honor and respect that women deserve in our
societies!"
Yama Rasaw of the International Policy Digest blamed
intolerance among Afghans and Muslims for
the killing of Farkhunda.
Funeral
On March 22, a number of women, dressed in black, carried
Farkhunda's coffin from an ambulance to a prayer ground and then to a graveyard
in Chaikhana, a northern neighborhood of Kabul. This was a marked departure
from tradition, which holds that such funerals are typically only attended by
men. At the end of 2015, it was reported that Farkhunda's grave was
half-finished.
Criminal cases
Of 49 suspects tried in the case, four men were sentenced to
death for their roles in Farkhunda's murder. The sentences were handed down by
Judge Safiullah Mojadedi in Kabul on May 5, 2015. Eight other defendants were
sentenced to 16 years in prison. The trial was noted for its unusual brevity,
lasting just two days. The verdict has been criticized because although
some investigators believe a fortuneteller set the attacks on Farkhunda in
motion, this person was found not guilty on appeal, and the shrine's custodian
had his death sentence commuted despite the fact that he originated the false
charge that Farkhunda had burned the Koran.
Three suspects in the murder were still at large at the time
of the May 5 sentencing, according to Mojadedi.
On May 19, eleven police officers including the local
district police chief were sentenced to one year in prison for failing to
protect Farkhunda.
On 2 July 2015, an appeals court overturned the death
sentences of the four men condemned in the mob killing. Three of those had
their sentences reduced to 20 years in jail, while the fourth was re-sentenced
to 10 years prompting street protests and a debate on women's rights. The chief
of police and a caretaker of the Shah-Do Shamshira holy shrine where the murder
occurred were acquitted.
As of August 12, 2015 an examination of the outcome of the
proceedings in the matter by a panel of lawyers appointed by Afghanistan’s
president resulted in a planned recommendation to the Afghan Supreme Court that
those accused in her death be retried. On March 19, 2016, the Women’s
Political Participation Committee, an Afghan civil society organization, called
for reevaluation of the Supreme Court’s decisions with more transparency.
Stay tune, remember to share to your friend in case it is useful,
follows my facebook fanpage :
》ile ustimih 《
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Farkhunda
1 comments: