Mob victim becomes rallying cry for Afghans

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.

The name of Farkhunda, beaten to death by a frenzied mob apparently in the mistaken belief that she had burned a Koran, has become a rallying cry for Afghans hoping the shocking incident will lead to profound changes in Afghanistan.

Activists say the previously unquestioned power of the religious establishment is being challenged for the first time in Afghanistan’s modern history. Religious leaders and conservative politicians have been forced by the power of public opinion to apologise for trying to justify Farkhunda’s killing. At least one official has been sacked for saying the woman would have deserved her death if she had burned the Muslim holy book.

At last week’s Kabul vigil, candlelight illuminated a huge poster of Farkhunda’s bloodied face as an actor recited Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man, followed by performances of works commemorating her death.

Outside, documentary filmmaker Diana Saqeb broke down: “I don’t believe in the humanity of this country anymore,” she said.

“This is a turning point for civil liberties. It will be difficult to return to the former status quo when only self-proclaimed religious leaders held the high moral ground at the expense of justice and the constitution,” he said.

Farkhunda, a 27-year-old religious scholar who like many Afghans used only one name, was killed on March 19 after an argument with a peddler at Kabul’s Shah-Do Shamshira mosque. Witnesses say she told the man to stop selling amulets to childless women; he shouted to whoever could hear that she had set fire to a Koran. As police watched, and at times participated, Farkhunda was punched, kicked, hit with planks of wood, thrown from a roof, run over by a car and crushed with a block of concrete. Her body was then dragged along a main road, thrown onto the banks of the Kabul River and set alight.

The incident, filmed on mobile phones and posted on social media, sparked nationwide demonstrations and vigils around the world.

The Interior Ministry says it has arrested 28 suspects and dismissed 19 policemen.

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