We hear so much about brutal attacks against women in Sharia-law countries where they’re later blamed for their own death. But there’s a new take on that sadly age-old story: a woman beaten to death in Afghanistan by a mob who accused her of burning a Koran, has been celebrated in death. And in a really fucked up way, what’s happened could actually give hope to women in the country.
Farkhunda was a 27-year-old Islamic law student. Upset at the way superstition was being practiced outside a shrine (Islam has rules against charms and trinkets, ones which say people shouldn’t follow false idols), she decided to take a stand.
She told the mullahs selling good luck charms outside the shrine they were un-Islamic and ignorant. However, they weren’t pleased with a woman telling them what to do. One accused her of burning a Koran, and then dozens set upon her, beating her up and calling her an ‘infidel’. They later set fire to her body.
These aren’t savage, backwards people from a different planet. The mob ‘justice’ was filmed on cameraphones by people who did nothing to intervene, the images were then shared on social media.
Farkhunda’s family were initially told to flee, and they felt forced to tell the police that Farkhunda was mentally ill – apparently, to excuse or explain away the fact that she had dared to voice an opinion.
READ MORE: Men In Burqas March For Women’s Rights In Afghanistan
But, things are changing. The Religious Affairs Committee has now pledged to get rid of fortune tellers and sellers of good-luck charms, and perhaps for the first time since Taliban rule (before this, Afghanistan was a relatively modern country, women wore trousers and were given access to education), it’s been acknowledged that a man does not always have the final say over a woman. Seriously, it’s a tiny straw to grasp on to, but it’s there.
Shahla Farid, a law lecturer at Kabul University, told* The New York Times***: ‘Farkhunda was a true Muslim, a religious hero. Here a woman challenged a man and defended Islam.’
The video of the extreme violence Farkhunda suffered has gone around on social media enough to alert authorities to just how unsafe it is for women – even the most pious, sharia-following women – to exist in Afghanistan, and they are conducting an investigation into Farkhunda’s death.
However, the incident hasn’t imbued Afghani women with much confidence. As one female student (30 boys turned up to school this past week, but only two girls were brave enough to attend) told Ms Farid: ‘How can I sit here in class with boys? I’m afraid of them.’
Afghanistan is currently at 169 in the UN’s Gender Equality Index
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.