FRANK FLORIO – On Sunday, February 12, 2017 a young Afghan couple was murdered by an angry mob in Kabul, Afghanistan.[1] The couple had been arrested and held at a police station for illegally eloping.[2] An angry mob stormed the police station the couple was held at, grabbed the couple, took them out and killed them.[3]
Eighteen-year-old Fatiha had been married against her will, but chose to elope with another man from a nearby village.[4] The couple was arrested on suspicions of adultery.[5] A mob, led by her husband and consisting of Fatiha’s own brothers and cousins, descended upon the police station to abduct and kill the couple.[6] “‘The women’s family believed she had damaged their honour. Together with armed villagers, they attacked the police station, took the girl and boy outside and shot them in front of the public,’ provisional governor Hafiz Abdul Qayyom told AFP.”[7] The officers stood no chance of protecting the couple. According to local authorities, there were only 30 police officers at the station facing 250-300 heavily armed men.[8]
Honour killings are not uncommon in Afghanistan where relations between men and women are controlled under local and Islamic practices, with violations often punishable by death.[9] “Salam Khan, 22, a witness from Fatiha’s village, Sar-i-Pul, said he saw what had happened to the couple after the police surrendered them. “Some of Fatiha’s relatives, her cousins, were beating her with their fists and saying, ‘Why did you do this?’ Then her older brother got angry and shot her with a hunting rifle and her younger brother shot her with an AK-47. I don’t know how many bullets they fired,’ Mr. Khan said, speaking by telephone from the remote village.’”[10] Fatiha’s legal unconsented to husband shot and killed the man she had eloped with.[11]
It is common for father’s to marry off their daughters in Afghanistan without consent and authorities often side with the families when it comes to honour killings.[12] Cases like Fatiha’s largely go unreported.[13] This largely begs the question, where is the West? Nations like the United States tout their progressiveness when it comes to women’s rights. Why isn’t more being done to protect women in the Middle East? If a lot is being done, why aren’t those who fight for women’s rights in that area of the world being praised and publicized? Fatiha did not have much of a choice when her family married her off to another man. She did not have much of a choice when she was brutally murdered in the street for being with a man she actually wanted to be with. Maybe, Western countries should progress their progressiveness into the Middle East so women like Fatiha don’t have to die for choosing to love.
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[1] Zahra Nader and Rob Norland, Mob Kills Eloped Lovers After Storming Afghan Police Station, N.Y. Times, Feb. 13, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/world/asia/nuristan-province-afghanistan-honor-killings.html?_r=0.
[2] Agence France-Presse, In ‘honour killing,’ mob lynches Afghan couple for eloping, The Express Tribune, Feb. 12, 2017, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1324630/mob-lynches-afghan-couple-eloping-honour-killing/.
[3] Zahra Nader and Rob Norland, Mob Kills Eloped Lovers After Storming Afghan Police Station, N.Y. Times, Feb. 13, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/world/asia/nuristan-province-afghanistan-honor-killings.html?_r=0.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Angry mob in Afghanistan kills lovers who eloped, Fox News, Feb. 14, 2017, http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02/14/angry-mob-in-afghanistan-kills-lovers-who-eloped.html.
[7] Agence France-Presse, In ‘honour killing,’ mob lynches Afghan couple for eloping, The Express Tribune, Feb. 12, 2017, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1324630/mob-lynches-afghan-couple-eloping-honour-killing/.
[8] Zahra Nader and Rob Norland, Mob Kills Eloped Lovers After Storming Afghan Police Station, N.Y. Times, Feb. 13, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/world/asia/nuristan-province-afghanistan-honor-killings.html?_r=0.
[9] Agence France-Presse, In ‘honour killing,’ mob lynches Afghan couple for eloping, The Express Tribune, Feb. 12, 2017, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1324630/mob-lynches-afghan-couple-eloping-honour-killing
[10] Zahra Nader and Rob Norland, Mob Kills Eloped Lovers After Storming Afghan Police Station, N.Y. Times, Feb. 13, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/world/asia/nuristan-province-afghanistan-honor-killings.html?_r=0.
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
[13] Id.
