Targeted killing of women's rights activist shocks Afghans

[tango]

Targeted killing of women's rights activist shocks Afghans

JESSICA LEEDER

Globe and Mail Update

April 12, 2009 at 9:19 PM EDT

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — In the hour before her killers pulled up beside the rickshaw and shot her at close range, Sitara Achakzai turned to a female politician riding beside her with a strange look.

“I'm not afraid of death,” said Ms. Achakzai, a well-known women's rights advocate and one of three elected women sitting on Kandahar's provincial council. “I can go and get killed and it's no big deal.”

Ms. Achakzai's friend, a provincial councillor who narrowly escaped death in a bombing at council headquarters less than two weeks ago, was so stunned by the comment, made just before the rickshaw pulled up to her stop, she got out without asking what prompted the revelation. Not long after, news came yesterday that she would never have another chance.

Ms. Achakzai, a dual Afghan and German citizen who returned to help rebuild her country in 2004, was shot at close range by gunmen on motorbikes before her rickshaw could finish the slow crawl back to her home.

The late Sitara Achakzi, one of four female members of the Kandahar Provinical Council, attends a council meeting in Kandahar City on March 11, 2009.

Enlarge Image

The late Sitara Achakzi, one of four female members of the Kandahar Provinical Council, attends a council meeting in Kandahar City on March 11, 2009. (Paula Lerner/Aurora Photos)

Within minutes of the killing, news of Ms. Achakzai's death had spread like wildfire across Kandahar. The killing has both horrified and terrified many educated women in the city, who looked up to the councillor as a role model.

“She is someone who was very well educated and understood what she was doing,” said a prominent businesswoman in Kandahar who has known Ms. Achakzai since her childhood.

...

In recent months, many prominent women, including famous policewoman Malalai Kakar, have been brutally murdered in public by assassins on behalf of the Taliban. Shortly after Ms. Achakzai's killing, Qari Yousef Ahmedi, a spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

[KrustyKidd]

Targeted killing of women's rights activist shocks Afghans

Educated women in a position of power are a natural target for pigs like the Taliban. The women are doing two things that threaten every hillbilly inbred belief those animals have both political and social. To say that this shocks progressive women who are committed to bringing Afghanistan out of the stone age is to degrade their intellect to a level lower than the Taliban knuckle draggers.

[tango]

Educated women in a position of power are a natural target for pigs like the Taliban. The women are doing two things that threaten every hillbilly inbred belief those animals have both political and social.

ok

To say that this shocks progressive women who are committed to bringing Afghanistan out of the stone age is to degrade their intellect to a level lower than the Taliban knuckle draggers.

wtf???

[KrustyKidd]

wtf???

Are you puzzled and surprised that a woman who held political status in Afghanistan was attacked and killed? If so then you were shocked and had no clue as to the danger they are in. If you are not surprised that women who hold positions of power in Afghanistan are in danger and are often attacked and killed then you are not as dull as those who were shocked to hear she was killed.

[tango]

Are you puzzled and surprised that a woman who held political status in Afghanistan was attacked and killed? If so then you were shocked and had no clue as to the danger they are in. If you are not surprised that women who hold positions of power in Afghanistan are in danger and are often attacked and killed then you are not as dull as those who were shocked to hear she was killed.

It's not "dull" to be shocked by violent political death.

Scraping the bottom of the insult barrel to come up with some contorted reason for disparaging strong women, though, is.

[kimmy]

He is not disparaging strong women.

He is stating that there is nothing shocking or surprising about this.

Sadly, he is correct.

-k

[KrustyKidd]

It's not "dull" to be shocked by violent political death.

Scraping the bottom of the insult barrel to come up with some contorted reason for disparaging strong women, though, is.

There is nothing shocking about her death. While not inevitable, she, and others like her know the risks and, believe in what they are doing. Where on earth you get the idea I am insulting them is beyond me. I insult Qutbists and those who do not understand the sacrifices brave women like her carry out as well, I condemn those with cliche like sayings such as the title of this thread which is designed to gain an emotional reaction to someone who is not aware that this often happens to women in positions of import in Afghanistan. It is saddening but, in an area where this happens all the time to women willing to face danger to do what is right, this is not a rarity, hence, not a shock.

[tango]

There is nothing shocking about her death. While not inevitable, she, and others like her know the risks and, believe in what they are doing. Where on earth you get the idea I am insulting them is beyond me. I insult Qutbists and those who do not understand the sacrifices brave women like her carry out as well, I condemn those with cliche like sayings such as the title of this thread which is designed to gain an emotional reaction to someone who is not aware that this often happens to women in positions of import in Afghanistan. It is saddening but, in an area where this happens all the time to women willing to face danger to do what is right, this is not a rarity, hence, not a shock.

Perhaps it is not shocking to you, but you can't presume to speak for "others like her".

[kimmy]

Perhaps it is not shocking to you, but you can't presume to speak for "others like her".

This attack could only be shocking to somebody who doesn't actually understand what the Taliban represent. Nobody who is aware of the Taliban is shocked.

Are you surprised that the Taliban would target women like this?

She herself wasn't surprised: as your article mentions, she discussed the possibility of being killed with a friend shortly before her death. Clearly, she was a very brave person.

-k

[DogOnPorch]

He is not disparaging strong women.

He is stating that there is nothing shocking or surprising about this.

Sadly, he is correct.

-k

Exactly, kimmy.

[Argus]

Perhaps it is not shocking to you, but you can't presume to speak for "others like her".

Even in more "civilized" muslim countries women have been murdered for campaigning for womens rights. Hell, schoolgirls have been machinegunned on the street for not wearing the chador and girls schools firebombed because Islamists don't believe girls should be educated.

Why anyone would be shocked by the murder of a womans activist in Afghanistan - the armpit of the world - is beyond me.

[KrustyKidd]

Perhaps it is not shocking to you, but you can't presume to speak for "others like her".

Golly. According to your logic she, and women like her are frumpy housewives who have no clue of the danger they are in.

No offence, but you seem to not be able to fathom the sacrifices and bravery these intellectual ground breaking women are attempting to carry out in their quest to achieve the equality you revere so much in you constitution. As you should be aware, the Taliban do not adhere to this document nor the UN version. Your inability to credit these women with knowledge of the danger is sexist to say the least and, makes you a racist according to your own revered document.

[KrustyKidd]

This attack could only be shocking to somebody who doesn't actually understand what the Taliban represent. Nobody who is aware of the Taliban is shocked.

Are you surprised that the Taliban would target women like this?

She herself wasn't surprised: as your article mentions, she discussed the possibility of being killed with a friend shortly before her death. Clearly, she was a very brave person.

-k

No kidding. 'Shocking' is a word used to sell papers. These women were living for a purpose which transends their own mortal lives.

Statues will be erected to them in the Planetary hall of Freedom, citing their bravery despite the morons who don't understand the danger they are in and, live with day to day.

Possibly beside the giant one of Bush The Great who freed fifty million people, more than any man in history.