Taliban 'execute Afghan woman for adultery'

9 Jul 2012, 11:53 am   -   Source: AFP
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A horrific video showing the public execution of a 22-year-old woman accused of adultery in Afghanistan has been condemned by the government as un-Islamic and inhuman.

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a powerful plea for the rights of women in Afghanistan, using a global forum to insist that they must be part of the country's future growth.
  
Her comments came as a horrific video emerged showing the public execution of a 22-year-old woman accused of adultery, amid fears that recent gains for women are under threat as NATO troops leave and Kabul seeks peace with the Taliban.
  
Clinton, who was addressing a world conference on Afghanistan's future, said: "The United States believes strongly that no nation can achieve peace, stability and economic growth if half the population is not empowered."
  
The top diplomat said the way forward "must include fighting corruption, improving governance, strengthening the rule of law (and providing) access to economic opportunity for all Afghans, especially for women".
  
"All citizens need to have the chance to benefit from and contribute to Afghanistan's progress. The United States will continue to stand strongly by the women of Afghanistan," she added.
  
But the execution video could renew concerns that Kabul is not doing enough to protect women, particularly from so-called honour killings, which were  common during the Taliban regime that ruled from 1996-2001.
  
In the video, a woman named as Najiba is shot repeatedly in the back in front of a crowd of men in Qol village in Parwan province just north of the capital Kabul.
  
The woman was married to a member of a hardline Taliban militant group and was accused of adultery with a Taliban commander, Parwan provincial spokeswoman Roshna Khalid told AFP Sunday.
  
"Within one hour they decided that she was guilty and sentenced her to death. They shot her in front of villagers in her village, Qol," she said, adding that the execution took place late last month.
  
Following the shooting a villager handed the video over to the provincial government, saying the security forces were "preparing a big operation to find the culprits".
  
The Afghan government issued a statement Sunday saying it "strongly condemns this un-Islamic and inhuman action by those professional killers and has ordered the Parwan police to find the culprits and bring them to justice".
  
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was "shocked and disgusted" by the reports of the execution.
  
"Such deplorable actions underline the vital need for better protection of the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan," he said in a statement.
  
The Afghanistan Human Rights Commission also expressed outrage, with executive director Mohammad Musa Mahmodi saying: "We condemn any killings done without proper trial. It is un-Islamic and against any human rights values."
  
Washington says significant progress has been made on women's rights since the US-led invasion of 2001 toppled the Taliban, with the number of girls attending schools soaring and more women gaining employment.
  
According to figures provided by the US State Department, out of the eight million students enrolled in schools today, nearly 40 percent are girls. That contrasts sharply with 2002 when there were only 900,000 children in schools, virtually none of them girls.
  
The US says there are now 175,000 teachers in Afghanistan, about a third of them women, thanks to $316 million spent on education initiatives.
  
US officials said Clinton had raised the issue of women's rights with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during her brief visit to Kabul on Saturday, warning that they were a litmus test for the country's progress.
  
The Tokyo talks have raised pledges of $16 billion in civilian aid for the conflict-torn nation over the next four years.
  
Representatives from more than 80 nations and international organisations gathering in the Japanese capital later adopted the "Tokyo Declaration", pledging support and cash for Kabul.
  

Afghanistan

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Your Comments

Not truly enforcing Islamic laws. The Taliban/AQ and the US are both extreme As theTB/AQ on one end and the US on the other

Jakob - from Sydney, 10 months ago

This was not Islamic as this was committed by thugs and nothing more not knowing there own laws If the woman was guilty 3-4 witnesses would have had to see the act of adultery. The guilty are to have a defense lawyer and both the woman and male would have been killed rather then just the woman Failing to produce the right amount of witnesses would result in lashing of the accuser (slander) Punishment for adultery is lashing in the Quran but the Hadith punishment of death is enforced instead

@Mona

Rob - from Geelong, 11 months ago

Do you really think you can educate these people?.

Dear Mona

Gail Thompson - from Dubai, UAE, 11 months ago

On that premis madam, what you are proposing is, that we should shut our eyes to the atrocities against our fellow human beings and it should sort itself out in approximately 150 years. That is a very educated point of view.....

Parwani

Mubariz Parwani - from Parwan, Afghanistan, 11 months ago

I as a residence of Parwan Province would like to draw your attention that, this part of Parwan province, neighboring province of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, is not representing the mentality of Parwan’s people. This is a Pashtun district that is supported both by the encircle of radical Pashtuns in the government of Hamid Karzai, residence of this particular district which is purely Pashtun tribe (same as Hamid Karzai), and the atrocities are executed by ISI supported Taliban terrorist groups

The best thing we warmongers can do is to provide Afghans with schools

Mona - from Australia, 11 months ago

The execution is surely by uneducated peasants indoctrinated by religion which unequivocally demands this penalty. IT IS Islamic.This may appear barbaric to westerners but up until the even late 1990's homosexuals were happily imprisoned in Australia * the death penalty was only repealed in the UK in 1861 as a result of the same Christian religious zeal. Many were hanged. Give these people a rudimentary education & they may move from this perceived inhumanity just as Christians were forced to

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