Taliban publicly execute woman near Kabul; Officials

[1871]

Taliban publicly execute woman near Kabul; Officials




Taliban execute woman publicly in Parwan near Kabul.
When the unnamed woman, most of her body tightly wrapped in a shawl, fell sideways after being shot several times in the head
By Hamid Shalizi and Amie Ferris-Rotman



A man Afghan officials say is a member of the Taliban shot dead a woman accused of adultery in front of a crowd near Kabul, a video obtained by Reuters showed, a sign that the austere Islamist group dictates law even near the Afghan capital.
In the three-minute video, a turban-clad man approaches a woman kneeling in the dirt and shoots her five times at close range with an automatic rifle, to cheers of jubilation from the 150 or so men watching in a village in Parwan province.
"Allah warns us not to get close to adultery because it's the wrong way," another man says as the shooter gets closer to the woman. "It is the order of Allah that she be executed".
Provincial Governor Basir Salangi said the video, obtained on Saturday, was shot a week ago in the village of Qimchok in Shinwari district, about an hour's drive from Kabul.
Such rare public punishment was a painful reminder to Afghan authorities of the Taliban's 1996-2001 period in power, and it raised concern about the treatment of Afghan women 11 years into the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents.
"When I saw this video, I closed my eyes ... The woman was not guilty; the Taliban are guilty," Salangi told Reuters.
When the unnamed woman, most of her body tightly wrapped in a shawl, fell sideways after being shot several times in the head, the spectators chanted: "Long live the Afghan mujahideen! (Islamist fighters)", a name the Taliban use for themselves.
The Taliban could not be reached for comment.
Despite the presence of over 130,000 foreign troops and 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, the Taliban have managed to resurge beyond their traditional bastions of the south and east, extending their reach into once more peaceful areas like Parwan.

HARD-WON WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN JEOPARDY?



This is not the first such incident in Ghazni. In this photo local people watch two Afghan women shot and killed by Taliban in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, on Sunday, July 13, 2008. (Photo: AP/Rahmatullah Naikzad)
Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and work since the Taliban, who deemed them un-Islamic for women, were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.
But fears are rising among Afghan women, some lawmakers and rights activists that such freedoms could be traded away as the Afghan government and the United States pursue talks with the Taliban to secure a peaceful end to the war.
Violence against women has increased sharply in the past year, according to Afghanistan's independent human rights commission. Activists say there is waning interest in women's rights on the part of President Hamid Karzai's government.
"After 10 years (of foreign intervention), and only a few kilometres from Kabul... how could this happen in front of all these people?" female lawmaker Fawzia Koofi said of the public execution in Parwan.
"This is happening under a government that claims to have made so much progress in women's rights, claims to have changed women's lives, and this is unacceptable. It is a huge step backwards," said Koofi, a campaigner for girls' education who wants to run in the 2014 presidential election.
Salangi said two Taliban commanders were sexually involved with the woman in Parwan, either through rape or romantically, and decided to torture her and then kill her to settle a dispute between the two of them.

"They are outlaws, murderers, and like savages they killed the woman," he said, adding that the Taliban exerted considerable sway in his province.

Earlier this week a 30-year-old woman and two of her children were beheaded in eastern Afghanistan by a man police said was her divorced husband, the latest of a string of so-called "honour killings".
Some Afghans still refer to Taliban courts for settling disputes, viewing government bodies as corrupt or unreliable. The courts use sharia (Islamic law), which prescribes punishments such as stonings and executions.
(Additional reporting and writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

[Juan_Carlos]

And they wonder why they're cheated on?

[Younes]

Looking at the surroundings in the video this seems to be a village located in the mountains where the terrain is inaccessible for military, and that is what decided government authority presence, through military presence and establishment, which is hard to get control of in such areas, weather it be Parwan, where Bagram airbase is located, or Nurestan, you cannot change the reality that the military faces in conquering such areas, therefore it really makes no difference if this is just north of Kabul, or on the Pakistani Afghan border.
Therefore I think it's kinda stupid to make it out like this proves the inability of the Kabul government to exercise it's law and authority.

But the issue is not just the thinking that Taliban brought, but the Ultra conservative way many Afghans view things, from tradition and tribal codes to strict interpretation of Fiqh, I mean, these 150 men on the mountain side are not Taliban, they are local villagers, cheering.

[1871]

Quote:Younes

Looking at the surroundings in the video this seems to be a village located in the mountains where the terrain is inaccessible for military, and that is what decided government authority presence, through military presence and establishment, which is hard to get control of in such areas, weather it be Parwan, where Bagram airbase is located, or Nurestan, you cannot change the reality that the military faces in conquering such areas, therefore it really makes no difference if this is just north of Kabul, or on the Pakistani Afghan border.
Therefore I think it's kinda stupid to make it out like this proves the inability of the Kabul government to exercise it's law and authority.

Kinda stupid comment. No terrain is inaccesible to the military - unless they have no control over an area - and if they dont its fair to state that. The murder took place 60 miles north of Kabul in a village they call quimchok - no idea other than that. Reports of the crime being committed by Taliban come from Afghanistan Government sources having interviewd villagers - no doubt theyll clarify further when/if they find the murderers.

This is similar to another attack a while ago;


Pregnant woman is flogged and shot dead by Taliban

Execution and Karen Woo’s murder beg the question - what will happen when Nato leaves Afghanistan ?

BY Jack BremerLAST UPDATED AT 16:40 ON Tue 10 Aug 2010


Deep anxieties over what will happen when Nato forces eventually leave the Afghans to their own devices have been raised by the slaughter of a group of aid workers, including the British medic Dr Karen Woo, and now by the news of the flogging and execution by the Taliban of a pregnant woman.

Police in the remote northwest province of Badghis confirmed to the AFP news agency yesterday that the 35-year-old woman, Bibi Sanubar, died after being shot three times in the head by a Taliban commander in the district of Qadis - an area entirely under Taliban control.

Sanubar was a widow and is said to have been reported to the Taliban by local elders, who discovered she had had an "illicit affair" which had left her pregnant. Although it was many years since her husband died, under the strictest interpretation of Sharia law, having sex with another man counts as adultery.

She was held captive for three days and then given 200 lashes in public before being shot. The man with whom Sanubar allegedly had the affair was not punished.

Mullah Daoud, a senior Taliban commander, told the Times that he was one of three who sat in judgment of Sanubar.

"There were three mullahs that passed this verdict. I was one of them," he said. "We gave this decision so that in future no one should have these illegal affairs. We whipped her in front of all the local people, to show them an example. Then we shot her."

The deputy police chief in Badghis, Ghulam Mohammad Sayeedi, confirmed the shooting to AFP. He said Sunabar's body was dumped afterwards in an area under Afghan government - not Taliban - control.

The execution serves as a brutal reminder of what the Taliban are capable of. During the six years they ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, public stonings and lashings were common punishment for women accused of adultery, while thieves would have their hands and feet chopped off.

But what is disturbing to human rights watchers today is that, while the punishment would not have been so severe, it is very likely Bibi Sunabar would still have been found guilty of adultery under Afghan state law, if the Taliban had not stepped in first.

While the head of security in Badghis province, General Abdul Jabar, condemned the flogging and execution of Sunabar, he made it very clear that what she was accused of was a crime in his view.

"This was not the way she should have been punished," the general said. "She should have been arrested and we should have had proof that she'd had an illegal affair. Then she should come to court and face justice. This kind of punishment was very severe."

Under Afghan state law, it is common for victims of rape to be jailed for having sex outside marriage. And while some adulterers are jailed, others are sent home so that their families can punish them appropriately. At which point they can be ostracised - or dealt with in an 'honour killing'. ·
....

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/12571/...z20JaIh5NJ

[YaelTheGreat]

Quote:But the issue is not just the thinking that Taliban brought, but the Ultra conservative way many Afghans view things, from tradition and tribal codes to strict interpretation of Fiqh, I mean, these 150 men on the mountain side are not Taliban, they are local villagers, cheering.

I was just reading something that talked about how religious progressiveness and how it is a key factor in the change of a society and a step toward peace, gonna post it up soon.

And this is really fucked up.

[Younes]

@1871
I disagree, of course terrain is the one of the most crucial factors, especially in terms of Afghanistan and the fact that Taliban and other insurgents are leading a guerilla warfare. And having a mountainous region that is inaccessible to vehicles and renders air support and air surveillance useless makes it nearly impossible to control.
It's not the first time you see this, in 2008 about 100-150 Taliban fighters gathered for an ambush that killed 10 french soldiers, in Kabul province, again, an area dominated by vegetation and mountains and alleys.

Therefore, it really holds no significance if this kind of stuff happens, close or far away from Kabul, since the terrain is the crucial factor that determines weather an area is easy to keep under control or not.

[1871]

^ which would exactly indicate the lack of Govt. control. With 130,000 foreign troops and 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police it doesnt seem like they are doing an effective job.

There are protests in Afghanistan against this execution.

[Younes]

^
You can't really blame them though, history has proven the difficulty in having a regular army combating militant groups who uses guerrilla tactics.
It's the same with the Marjah offensive, and the Kandahar offensive. That's why experts have stated that winning this through military is impossible, and a deal should be made.
My point is, that this doesn't indicate anything, of course by any standard the Government in Kabul has been doing a pretty shitty job with all the crooked politicians and warlords incorporated into it, but this incident doesn't prove further incompetence.

[Gezus]

Disgusting. It's bewildering to think that people not only do that kind of shit, but think it is totally okay, totally justified, just because they believe their God would allow or demand such action. And the people cheering are just as disgusting. People like them just help to give fuel for governments, like the USA's, to justify their wicked brand of so-called justice and democracy upon the entire population of whatever country they decide needs to be cleansed of evil and natural resources.

[Younes]

Bomb kills female Afghan politician

July 13 2012 at 04:41pm
By Reuters

Quote:Nangahar, Afghanistan - A regional head of women's affairs was targeted and killed by a car bomb in Afghanistan's east on Friday, officials said, the latest act of brazen violence against women in the country.

Hanifa Safi was killed when driving through the capital of Laghman province, Mehtar Lam, when a bomb attached to her car exploded, said the provincial governor's spokesman Sarhadi Zwak.

“It killed her and left her husband, who was with her in the car, in a coma,” Zwak told Reuters, adding that the attack about 150 km (93 miles) east of Kabul also wounded 10 civilians.

Zwak declined to say whether or not he believed the Taliban were behind the attack, instead saying “enemies of Afghanistan” planted the bomb.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Safi is the second provincial head of women's affairs to be assassinated since the posts were created around 10 years ago in each of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, reporting to the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Kabul.

She joins Safia Ama Jan, who headed the department in southern Kandahar province, and was gunned down in 2006 by members of the Taliban.

Friday's killing came days after Reuters obtained a video of a 22-year-old woman, named Najiba, being publicly executed for alleged adultery about an hour's drive from Kabul, sparking international outcry.

The Taliban denied involvement in that attack, although officials in Kabul directly blamed the group for the shooting, a death whose similarity to punishment meted out during their 1996-2001 reign chilled many ordinary Afghans.

A manhunt has been launched for the alleged Taliban members involved in her killing in Parwan province, which took place late last month.

Both killings come at a time of increased violence against women in Afghanistan, which activists blame on what they say is waning interest in women's rights on the part of President Hamid Karzai's government.

Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and employment since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001, but fears are mounting at home and abroad that such freedoms could be traded away as Kabul seeks peace talks with the group.

There are also concerns on the ground and at rights groups that Afghan women are being left out of the equation as most foreign troops plan to leave by 2014 and donor fatigue and general war weariness take their toll on the impoverished country. - Reuters

[YaelTheGreat]

The international community needs to smarten up and accept that they need to make a deal with the Taliban to ever be able to change the region; if that is what they wanted to do.

[Younes]

^
Problem is that Taliban is a homogenous movement, that's why Taliban could claim no involvement in the execution of the woman in Parwan. Also, other segments of Taliban have said they would go against the movement if they ever would broker a deal with the Afghan government and the Americans. Plus you should realize that's what Obama have been trying to for a long time now, realizing this war really can't be won, they even tried to do the same as they did in Iraq by paying tribal elders to go against Taliban, which really haven't proved to help a lot, though for some reason, apparently Taliban is confident enough to abstain from the Peace talks.

Go to 1:40 mark

Even though 80% of Afghan people would support a peace deal, it will only ensure a part of the movement to lay down weapons, since the reason for a large portion of the fighters isn't necessarily following the leadership in Quetta, but because of anger and frustration about the Karzai government and the presence of foreign military.