Kabul: In yet another cowardly attack on the freedom of expression, a noted journalist, women’s rights’ activist and cultural advisor to Afghanistan’s lower house of Parliament, Mina Mangal, was shot dead in broad daylight on Saturday, while she was on her way to work in Kabul. Incidentally, this brutal attack happened just a few days after Mangal, in her social media post, had said that there was a threat to her life.
Mangal was a highly reputed journalist who had worked with Tolo TV, the largest private broadcaster in Afghanistan, apart from working at Shamshad and Lemar television stations. Mangal was also a vocal critic of the patriarchal Afghan society and advocated for women’s rights, especially right to education and right to work.
The attackers have not been identified as yet.
Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said, “one or possibly more assailants had escaped the scene but no one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and police say it is not yet clear whether the murder was a terror attack or an attack from someone Ms Mangal knew.” Adding further, he said, “a special police unit was now investigating.”
Women’s rights activist have expressed their grief and have lashed out at authorities for not protecting her despite Mangal making her fears clear.
Wazhma Frogh, a well-known Afghan human rights lawyer and women’s rights campaigner, tweeted, “This woman had already shared that her life was in danger. Why did nothing happen? We need answers.” Adding further, Frogh wrote, “Why is it so easy in this society [for men] to keep killing women they disagree with? Can’t stop my tears at the loss of this beautiful soul. She had a loud voice and actively raising voice for her people.”
Even political analyst Mariam Wardak expressed her sharp disapproval of such an inhuman act. Wardak said that Mangal’s killing is an “absolute dishonour” to the country’s police, intelligence services and national security council. She then called on female leaders to use their positions of power to “bring awareness and protection for women”.
In a tearful video posted on Twitter, Mangal’s mother named a group of men as suspected killers, claiming that they had previously kidnapped her daughter. The group were arrested for that abduction, she said, but later bribed their way out of detention.
Afghanistan is said to be one of the deadliest places for women, especially journalists. Amnesty International has ranked this war-torn country as the worst place in the world to be a woman. This country is infamous for killing women, belonging to any position, if they go against the patriarchal setup.
Taliban, that is responsible for miserable condition in which the country is in today, is notorious for human rights abuses including against women. This same group was behind the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, then 15-years old, because she spoke out about girls’ right to be educated.
With chances of peace talks between the United States and the Taliban materializing, there is a looming fear among the women’s rights activists that their hard-won freedoms would be jeopardized.
Notably, just days before Mangal’s murder, the Taliban attacked the headquarters of an international aid group in Kabul, citing its work on women’s rights as one reason it was targeted.
The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Counterpart International had carried out “harmful western activities” in Afghanistan, and was “promoting open inter-mixing between men and women.”
Here at home, nobody can forget the brutal murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh who worked as an editor in Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada weekly. Lankesh was known for being a critic of right-wing Hindu extremism and was shot dead just outside her house in 2017.
Recently, UN expert, Michael Forst, while presenting his annual report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, had said that women human rights defenders faced worsening violence. Forst said, “In the current political climate, in which there is a backlash against human rights, women who defend and promote rights are often the first to come under attack.” He further added that the condition of indigenous women working for minority rights is the worst.
“Public shaming, attacks on women’s honour and their reputation, doxing or publishing their personal details on the internet, sexual violence and attacks against their children and loved ones, are used to silence women human rights defenders,” Forst rightly said.
With a sensitive atmosphere across the world, such dreadful incidents cannot but have a very real chilling effect on free speech and opinion.
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