Washington Post
Afghan woman, killed by a mob for a crime she didn’t commit, becomes a rallying point for activists
Four days ago, an Afghan woman named Farkhunda lay on the ground beneath the flailing, kicking feet of dozens of men. Her face swollen and bright with blood, she attempted to stand and plead for mercy. But her attackers, who accused her of burning a Koran, kicked her back and exchanged their feet for stones and wooden planks. Before it was over, Farkhunda’s body would be thrown from a rooftop, run over by a car and then set ablaze on a bank of the muddy Kabul River.
On Sunday, Farkhunda’s body lay in a coffin carried on the shoulders of several black-clad Afghan women. Bucking tradition, these pallbearers took on a role usually designated to men, conveying Farkhunda’s coffin to an open-air prayer ground and then to her grave.[...]
But General Mohammad Zahir, the head of the interior ministry’s criminal investigation directorate, said at the funeral Sunday he had reviewed the evidence and concluded Farkhunda was “totally innocent.”
“Last
night I went through all documents and evidence once again, but I
couldn’t find any evidence to say Farkhunda burnt the Holy Koran,” he
told reporters. [...]
This kind of thing goes on a lot among primitive people of uncontrolled passion and undeveloped intellect. The misogyny of Islamic culture doesn't help much either.
ReplyDeleteHmm. I wouldn't have characterized Nazis as primitive, yet in comparison to documented incidents from the Holocaust, this is not so out-of-the-box. I think many us harbor the potential for this kind of behavior. Or maybe my barely checked unbridled passion that flares up from time to time is less common among the populace than I think.
ReplyDeleteForgive my skepticism, but I think this post has nothing to do with Islam or Afgan Women.
ReplyDeleteThis story is posted cause Rabbi E. thinks this is the next stage in Sanhedria
aka Nachlaot Act 1, scene 2
I did not say it takes place only among primitives.
ReplyDeleteI think this stuff goes on in the Frum community as well, on a smaller scale. When someone is accused of selling treif, or having an affair, or molesting a kid, etc. People jump to conclusions and become judge, jury, and executioner and throw people out of communities, even physical harm.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't make a difference whether guilty or innocent, if it turns into mob rule, it will eventually happen to an innocent person as well. The mob doesn't differentiate.
It's done more violently in Afghanistan, only because afghanistan is a more violent place. In the times of the Jewish wars against the Romans, or earlier, it may have very well happened in the frum community. Look what happened when Biryonim burned the warehouses of food to force a war. Or what happened to "Nov Ir Halohanim", or what brought about the "Egel Hazahv" when "Chur" was killed by the mob. I am sure there are many documented cases of the same type of behavior among us, and beware of the thought that it can't happen by us. There is no reason to assume that human behavior won't affect us.
Or it might be a parallel to what certain wicked people have been doing and are still trying to do to the innocent staff members of certain seminaries.
ReplyDelete