Activist Killed In Afghanistan, UN Urged To Conduct Crimes Against Women

JAKARTA - Women's rights activists in Afghanistan are currently stricken with fear and fear for their lives, along with the 'terror' they receive. In fact, there are also activists who have died.

As experienced by Forouzan Safi, the woman who joined other activists to protest the Taliban destroying women's rights in Afghanistan last September.

Safi is a civil rights advocate and economics lecturer in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

However, in late October he was found murdered. He reportedly left home that day with a passport, believed to have met someone who would help him get out of Afghanistan.

Her body was found riddled with bullets along with three other women who were also killed. News of their deaths have resonated around a community of activists fighting for the betterment of women and girls who have lived in fear since the Taliban regained power.

"Forouzan is one of many young women activists who have dreams of having a beautiful life, to have basic rights, to live in peace, to pursue her dreams, but unfortunately she can't make it happen," her friend Nilofar Ayoubi told the ABC. as quoted 22 November.

"She was one of the female protesters from the Mazar-e-Sharif group protesting after 15 August, and then she was identified with three other female activists by the Taliban and unfortunately they were trapped to death."

Ayoubi is a journalist and activist who left Afghanistan fearing for his own safety. She is well connected to a network of women's and human rights activists in Afghanistan and said Safi knew something was wrong ahead of her departure.

"He had messaged one of our sisters a few days before the incident, (saying) he didn't feel safe on WhatsApp."

"Because the situation was very tense at that time, no one noticed his absence from the chat group, then after a few days the news came out and his body was found, along with three other activist sisters," he said.

Some activists have reported receiving phone calls, messages and emails from suspicious individuals, claiming they can help those wishing to leave Afghanistan.

They were reportedly asked to share personal details and invited to come to certain locations.

Two suspects have confessed to luring Safi and three other women to the house where their bodies were found.

Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesman said suspects had been arrested in connection with the killing, but did not say whether they also confessed to the killing.

He said the case was being transferred to court.

Separately, Human Rights Watch associate director for women's rights Heather Barr told the ABC, "The Taliban are creating an environment where women like Safi are really walking with targets behind them."

"And there seems to be impunity for the people who would attack and kill them," he said

Meanwhile, Ayoubi said a list of women who attended at least one protest in Kabul had been obtained by Taliban fighters.

"The Taliban started circling them and reading their names one by one and threatening them, (saying) 'if we can find out your exact names and numbers who are currently present in this protest, then it will be very easy for us to find you and hunt you down. you're down," he said.

A woman still in Afghanistan, who helped organize some of the protests, told the ABC the Taliban had threatened her directly.

"We are still hiding ourselves and we don't know how to move on with our lives. We are unemployed in this situation. I love my country very much but since the Taliban [regained power] it's been like hell and we're burning in this hell," she explained, with the ABC. hide his identity for security reasons.

Ayoubi believes the killings in Mazar-e-Sharif will quell the latest upheaval in the struggle for women's rights in Afghanistan.

"With this killing, I think the Taliban succeeded in creating fear and horror in the family to stop the protests of women, daughters, daughters, their wives," he said.

"I'm afraid that if it continues like this, in no time these voices will disappear. The Taliban hate these young educated minds, especially when these voices are women," he said.

Barr of Human Rights Watch told the ABC the situation in Afghanistan is now "very, very dark".

"People have all these fears about how the Taliban will govern. And now we have almost three months to find out, and we've learned that most of those fears are justified," he said.

There have been documented retaliatory and retaliatory killings in Afghanistan, including members of the resistance movement and former security forces.

"From the start, it was clear that they were also trying to track down women's rights activists and other human rights activists," Barr said.

"And even if they didn't kill those people, they were definitely trying to scare them and try to silence them."

Barr said there were questions about whether the intimidation of women's rights activists would escalate to murder. The death of Forouzan Safi provides a chilling answer.

"This appears to be the first murder of a women's rights activist since August 15 and is therefore a very worrying development for that reason."

Barr believes the UN should investigate crimes specifically against women.

"There has to be an investigation, there has to be a real investigation into who killed him, and why and the consequences and justice for his family."