Killing of a Woman over Quran Shocks Afghans & Prompts Reflection

The tragic incident on Thursday March 19, 2015, when an innocent young woman was brutally killed by an angry mob in Kabul, has received significant attention both in Kabul and outside Afghanistan. She was beaten to death and later put on fire for allegedly burning the Quran, an allegation that turned out to be fallacious upon police investigation. While the incident itself was extremely tragic and inhumane, what is even more important is the potential implication it has for the future of the country as a breeding ground for extremist ideologies.

The incident was shocking in more ways than can meet the eye. To begin with, the beating of a woman by men in public flies in the face of the once deeply ingrained Afghan cultural value of relating to women not just as equals to men, but in fact venerating them above men. A trivial but culturally significant example from Afghanistan’s “Golden Era” as late as the 1970s will illustrate the point. What would typically have happened in a bus full of people as soon as a woman came on board? More likely than not, more than one man would have vacated his seat to allow the woman to sit down. Even today, women are not expected to wait at the end of the line at government offices, at airport check-in or in other public places. After all, Afghanistan was heir to the same Islamic tradition, in which one wife of the prophet, Bibi Khadija, was among the richest merchants in 7^th century Arabia, while another wife, Bibi Ayesha, was the greatest narrator of prophetic knowledge. The puzzling question how come we managed to move forward in time 14 centuries but fall behind in our practice by more than that, and whether the trauma of the last three decades explains the 14 centuries of lagging behind?

 

Secondly, this incident happened in broad daylight, in a holy place, in the middle of downtown, and most importantly in the full sight of several armed Afghan police officers, and thus is not an act that could be easily swept under the carpet. The footage shows that the perpetrators included young and old, bearded and clean-shaven, traditionally-dressed as well as in Western clothes, and even reportedly a few other women. For the extremists, this is their dream come true that even 14 years after the end of the repressive Taliban regime, people’s mentality is still as susceptible for their misleading message as ever.

So far this has been abhorrent enough, but what is even more upsetting is the fact that several people - apparently progressive, open minded and educated - put their stamps of approval on these barbaric actions. One example is Dr. Muhammad Ayaz Niazi, who is the Imam, or religious leader, at the Wazir Akbar Khan Mosque in one of Kabul’s most well-to-do neighborhoods. In his Friday sermon, the day after the attack, he justified the barbaric act under the premise that when the sacred is under attack, one does not have time to check for evidence of the alleged offender’s mental state. Here, he was referring to media reports that said Farkhunda was suffering from mental disorders. Later it was revealed that Farkhunda’s father had said this about her deceased daughter under pressure from the Kabul Police Chief, because not saying so would have put the family’s life also at risk of the mobs, against which the police was unwilling or unable to provide protection. Although Dr. Niazi later attempted to take back his words, his retraction was too little too late. Instead of apologizing for jumping the gun before hearing the full story, he, rather contemptuously, assumed people wouldn’t have paid close attention to his words during the Friday sermon - which has been broadcast all over social media thanks to technological developments - and he outrightly denied having justified the act at all.

It is important to notice that almost all those who condemn this act do so on the basis of the fact that a) Farkhunda was innocent because she did not in fact burn the Quran, and b) Farkhunda was in fact a practicing Muslim and a student of theology. One could further ask the question, although not in Afghanistan without fearing a similar retribution to the one that Farkhunda faced, “what if Farkhunda had indeed burned the Quran and that she was not a practicing Muslim. Would the society have then justified the treatment she received?” If yes, which I fear is the likely answer, we have a lot to worry about, as this would be even worse than what the Taliban regime would dictate. One need not be a scholar of Islamic jurisprudence to know that in Islamic (Sharia) law, even the worst offender has the right to be heard by someone considered competent enough to make such life and death decisions, not by ordinary people on the streets, half of whom are almost certainly illiterate, and also unlikely to be able to read or understand the meaning of the Quran that they claim to be defending. The same Quran that says killing one innocent soul is like killing all mankind. If Dr. Niazi is right that one must act right away when the sacred is under threat, then what is the need for the police or the judiciary or even the religious verdict of an Islamic scholar, i.e. himself? Such mentality has enormous ramifications for the enforcement of law and order, and completely undermines the concepts of a civil society. This is not tolerated in any modern society and this is not condoned according to Islam, which they all pretend to be defending.

Every coin has two sides and there is potentially some light at the end of this dark tunnel too. For example, the news of this event has already spread rapidly both within Afghanistan and outside its borders among the Afghan Diaspora through social media. The event has also received significant media coverage within the country, making headlines for five consecutive days. Both the attack and Dr. Niazi’s remarks have been denounced throughout the community. Candle light vigils and mass demonstrations have taken place across the country, with abundant participation by members of the civil society and especially women activists. In an historically unprecedented move, Farkhuda’s funeral was carried only on the shoulders of women to her final resting place, a culturally and socially significant act that is traditionally exclusive to men. The demonstrators gather in thousands and demand not only justice and punishment for the perpetrators, but also naming the street where the incident took place after Farkhunda. If successful, this is going to be an historic win for the moderates in a country often represented by the extremists.

Since we now know what sparked the violence was an exchange between Farkhunda and a Talisman writer (Ta’weez Nawees), a superstitious practice traditionally believed to use Quranic verses to heal illnesses and solve many other problems, the practice has come under closer scrutiny in the last few days, which has the potential to open people’s eyes to their false promises, often fake prayers and sometimes hurtful practices. It’s worth mentioning that this and other similar practices, including all kinds of sorcery, fortune telling, foretelling and magic, are forbidden as understood by the majority of Muslims, including Muslims in Afghanistan. However, ironically enough, the practice is widespread and expanding.

One can only hope that the tide of good will overbear the potential for darkness to the already grief-stricken and war-ravaged Afghan society. 

On a lighter note, although really far from light, the poet of Fardin Fakher’s song seems to have hit the nail on the head by wondering why is it that the world is contemplating about the stars and the planets and we continue to get murdered in utter ignorance!