Afghan woman wrongly beaten to death but hardly any condemnation!

Another day, another mob lynching and mob [in]justice perpetrated by some barbarians. These people think that they have been awarded with God-given license to take up law in their own hands and discharge quick & dirty punishment [like those IS-style beheadings after a guilty verdict is read out and no chance given to the accused to defend himself] to any person they think is guilty - judge, jury and executioner all molded into one persona?! Grave injustice is carried out by Muslims on other Muslims, but the clergy and the general mass keep silent; they only roar when the injustice is carried out by the non-Muslims! However, this tragic event was touched by Afghan women so much so that some women from this highly conservative country dared to come out on the street to protest and carry her coffin to the grave.

Woman lynched for burning Qur’an was innocent
Associated Press, 23 March 2015

KABUL: A woman killed by an angry mob in front of police in the Afghan capital last week for allegedly burning a copy of the Holy Qur’an was wrongly accused, Afghanistan’s top criminal investigator said on Sunday.

Mobile phone footage circulating on social media shows police at the scene did not save the 27-year-old woman, Farkhunda, who was beaten with sticks and set on fire by a crowd of men in central Kabul in broad daylight on Thursday.
“Last night I went through all documents and evidence once again, but I couldn’t find any evidence to say Farkhunda burned the Holy Qur’an,” General Mohammad Zahir told reporters at her funeral on Sunday. “Farkhunda was totally innocent.”
The top criminal investigator promised to punish all those involved and said 13 people, including eight police officers, had already been arrested.
The killing was condemned by the Afghan president and other officials, but also drew praise from some quarters, including from a prominent cleric, who asserted the men had a right to defend their Muslim beliefs at all costs.

Farkhunda was a teacher of Islamic studies, according to her brother, who denied media reports that she had been mentally ill. He said this was a made-up defense by their father, who wanted to protect the family after police told them to leave the city for their own safety.
“My father was frightened and made the false statement to calm people down,” said Najibullah, who is changing his second name to Farkhunda in memory of his sister.

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AFGHAN women’s rights activists dressed head-to-toe in black broke with tradition to carry the coffin of a woman who was beaten to death by a mob in the capital Kabul over allegations she had burned a Koran.

The mob of men beat 27-year-old Farkhunda before throwing her body off a roof, running over it with a car, setting it on fire and throwing it into a river near a well-known mosque.

The attack was apparently sparked by allegations that Farkhunda, who like many Afghans has just one name, had set fire to a Koran. But Afghanistan’s most senior detective said no evidence had been found to support those claims.

Video of the assault taken with cellphones has circulated widely since the attack on Thursday last week. The killing has shocked many Afghans and led to renewed calls for justice and reform.

“We want justice for Farkhunda, we want justice for Afghan women. All these injustices happening to Afghan women are unacceptable,” said a prominent women’s rights activist who goes by the name Dr. Alima.

“In which religion or faith is it acceptable to burn a person to death? Today is a day of national mourning and we will not keep quiet.”

President Ashraf Ghani, now in Washington on his first state visit to the United States since taking office in September, condemned the killing as a “heinous attack” and ordered an investigation.

Following allegations that police stood by and did nothing to stop the killing, Ghani told reporters before leaving for the US that the incident revealed “a fundamental issue” — that security forces are too focused on the fight against the Taliban insurgency to concentrate on community policing.

AFGHAN women’s rights activists dressed head-to-toe in black broke with tradition to carry the coffin of a woman who was beaten to death by a mob in the capital Kabul over allegations she had burned a Koran.

The mob of men beat 27-year-old Farkhunda before throwing her body off a roof, running over it with a car, setting it on fire and throwing it into a river near a well-known mosque.

The attack was apparently sparked by allegations that Farkhunda, who like many Afghans has just one name, had set fire to a Koran. But Afghanistan’s most senior detective said no evidence had been found to support those claims.

Video of the assault taken with cellphones has circulated widely since the attack on Thursday last week. The killing has shocked many Afghans and led to renewed calls for justice and reform.

Breaking with tradition ... independent Afghan civil society activist women carried the coffin of Farkhunda, 27, who was lynched by an angry mob in central Kabul. Source: AFP

“We want justice for Farkhunda, we want justice for Afghan women. All these injustices happening to Afghan women are unacceptable,” said a prominent women’s rights activist who goes by the name Dr. Alima.

“In which religion or faith is it acceptable to burn a person to death? Today is a day of national mourning and we will not keep quiet.”

President Ashraf Ghani, now in Washington on his first state visit to the United States since taking office in September, condemned the killing as a “heinous attack” and ordered an investigation.

Following allegations that police stood by and did nothing to stop the killing, Ghani told reporters before leaving for the US that the incident revealed “a fundamental issue” — that security forces are too focused on the fight against the Taliban insurgency to concentrate on community policing.

Lynched woman innocent of Koran-burning

Many rights activists, however, said the killing cut to the core of how women are treated as second-class citizens in Afghan society.

Despite constitutional guarantees of equal rights and advances in access to health and education, for many women in Afghanistan little has changed since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion ended the Taliban’s harsh rule. Girls are routinely married off as children, traded as chattels and then rarely permitted to leave their homes without a male relative.

Hundreds of people gathered at a graveyard today in the middle-class suburb near Farkhunda’s home. With the permission of her father, the women in black carried her coffin from an ambulance to an open-air prayer ground, and then to her grave, rituals that are usually attended only by men.

“She is a sister to you all, and it is your duty to bury her,” Farkhunda’s brother Najibullah, standing gravesite, told the crowd.

Several politicians, officials and senior police officers addressed the funeral, which was broadcast live. Men formed a chain around the women pallbearers to offer protection and support.

The attack appeared to have grown out of a dispute between Farkhunda, a veiled woman who had just finished a degree in religious studies and was preparing to take a teaching post, and men who sold amulets at Shah-Do Shamshera shrine, where the killing happened.

She regarded the amulet sellers as parasites and told women not to waste their money on them, friends and family said. Her father, Mohammed Nadir, said the men responded by making false accusations that she had torched a Koran.

“Based on their lies, people decided Farkhunda was not a Muslim and beat her to death,” he said. The Interior Ministry said it was providing extra protection for the family.

The head of the ministry’s criminal investigation directorate, Gen. Mohammad Zahir, said 13 people had been arrested in connection with the killing, including two men who sold amulets. The Interior Ministry said 13 policemen had been suspended pending investigation.

Zahir said authorities were “unable to find any single iota of evidence to support claims that she had burned a Koran.”

“She is completely innocent,” he said.