Civil activists call harsh punishment for Rukhshana’s killers

A number of civil activists gathered in Shahr-e Naw Park and with anti-government slogans asked the National Unity Government to drag those behind Rukhshana’s killing and punish them for their evil act.

They accused the National Unity Government and warned of continued protest if their voices not hear.

“Afghanistan is a burning hell for Afghan women not a paradise,” Sili Ghafari, civil activist said.

“I urge from our people not a corrupted government to mobilize and do not allow any Farkhunda and Rukhshan to scarify anymore,” said civil activist, Lima.

19-year-old Rokhshana was accused of trying to elope with another man but was arrested, tried and executed in a Taliban-trial field.

The Taliban has stoned a young Afghan woman to death for attempting to flee a forced marriage and elope with another man.

In a graphic, 30-second video, which has not been verified, a group of men are hurling stones at what seems to be a woman reciting the Islamic creed of faith from a neck-deep pit.

The incident occurred in Ghalmeen, a village outside the capital of the central Afghan province of Ghor, which is under the control of armed opposition groups.

To many Afghans, public lashings and stonings are an appalling echo of the times during Taliban rule when the fundamentalist movement would routinely mete out corporal punishment for so-called moral crimes. It is also sign of the government lack of clout in many rural communities in which clerics and tribal leaders uphold fundamentalist values.

Under the 1996-2001 Taliban rule, girls were barred from attending school, women were forced to stay indoors, and to cover their heads and faces with burqas when they left their homes, which was permitted only in the company of male relatives.