in brief: afghan woman’s throat slit after denying marriage request

On Tuesday 27 November, Nishina, a 15 year old girl in Kunduz, Afghanistan, had her throat slit. Her murder was retaliatory – she and her family had refused a marriage proposal.

She was killed by her cousin Mohammad Sadeq. He had proposed to her for his brother. Soon after the family said no, he returned and attacked Nishina while she was getting water from a well. Both Sadaq and his brother have been arrested.

This is but one such incident in a country that’s seen an increase in violence against women in the past year. An attack on three women by four men started the trend – they used acid to disfigure a teenager and her two sisters. It was, again, after a refused marriage request.

Heather Barr, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the following:

‘The Afghan Human Rights Commission has recorded an alarming increase in the number of cases of violence against women this year and the murder in Kunduz seems to fit a pattern that has become all too familiar, where men feel free to murder a woman who has angered them.’

In another incident, a husband murdered his wife because he was angry that all of their children were girls.

President Hamid Karzai has called on clerics and community leaders to help end the violence. He may not get much help from the former group as Afghanistan’s conservative council of clerics have deemed women “secondary” to men and, recently, demanded the power to issue legally binding religious decrees.

Human Rights campaigner Wazhma Frogh is worried about the council’s demand (few of their demands are implemented), but she is concerned about the country’s mentality:

‘We do risk going backwards. One day we hear women can’t travel alone, another that you are a lesser human being, then this about sharia law. But how is that possible in a country where you have a constitution, supreme court and judiciary?’

By Cory Zanoni

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