Poets, musicians, actors and activists packed a shop in Kabul to commemorate the short life and violent death of a woman who has become a symbol for justice and women’s rights in a country that historically elevates warlords and battlefield heroes to national icons.

Thousands of people have marched through the Afghan capital, demanding justice for a woman who was beaten to death by a mob after being falsely accused of burning a Koran.

An Afghan woman who was beaten to death by a mob was buried in Kabul yesterday, her coffin carried aloft by women’s rights activists.