by JAMILA RIZVI
The video shows 22 year old Najiba, clothed in a grey shawl and sitting on the edge of a ditch. There are scatterings of men surrounding her and dozens further afield, watching the execution from a distance. Some are sitting on the rooftops of their homes, gazing intently at the spectacle.
You can hear verses of the Koran being read aloud and Najiba is condemned as an adulterer. A voice says: “we cannot forgive her, God tells us to finish her. Juma Khan, her husband has the right to kill her.”
A man approaches Najiba with an AK47 and he fires. He misses. He misses once more.
The third shot hits her body and is followed by several more, each of which hits its target.
There are then wild cheers from the onlooking crowd as Najiba crumples into the ground.
Truly horrific video footage has emerged of a 22-year-old Afghan woman who was killed in the centre of her own village, while her friends, family and community looked on.
Last week, Najiba was given an hour long ‘trial’, by the militant Taliban group of which her husband is a member. She was accused and ‘convicted’ of adultery by a group who still consider themselves to be the true rulers of Afghanistan.
The footage is incredibly confronting and distressing and we have chosen not to embed the video on Mamamia but you can watch it here.
Since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by the United States and allied forces, the rate of public executions by the Taliban has decreased. But it has not stopped.
I know this isn’t the kind of news you want to hear on a Monday. I have felt sick every minute since I watched that chilling footage. But this is news we have to hear. Because as we all complain about our electricity bills and buses that never seem to run on time or cold morning coffee – we forget that there are women in this world whose suffering we cannot comprehend.
I live in a beautiful and safe country – a country, which values women and treats them as equals.
My father was thrilled and supportive when I wanted to go to university. I don’t need permission from my male housemates to drive to work in the morning. I have access to contraception. My life is not at risk because I write about my own opinions for a living. And I will decide for myself who I marry.
My path in life is not controlled by the men around me. It will be one of my own choosing.
Most days I forget to reflect on how lucky I am.
This isn’t one of them.
Comments
173 Comments so far
Thank you, Jamila. This is an important piece. It can’t have been easy to write.
This story is abhorent. I really didn’t want to read it but I think we need to see things like this to remind us that many of our sisters in other parts of the world live in fear and subjugation every day.
I never take my freedoms for granted. An accident of birth is all that separates us from the women of Afghanistan. I’ll go to bed tonight thanking my lucky stars that I was born in the West, to parents who valued their son and daughter in equal measure. I got to go to school. I earn my own money and I get to keep it. I choose my clothes. I have the vote. I’m free to waste time on internet sites bickering with strangers about trivial celebrity related matters. I get to do all of these things and my sisters live in a society run by men for men, minute by minute.
What can we do? Are there any reputable charities that we can donate to? Does anyone know of any practical help we can provide?
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Regarding reputable charities, I’ve found it difficult to check out the legitimacy of the charities which focus on women in Afghanistan. However, generally speaking, I’d recommend Medicins Sans Frontieres (especially for the provision of health) and Red Crescent. For children, I’d try War Child or UNICEF.
In terms of practical support, that is harder. I’d suggest that, in the first instance, pressure needs to be put on the Karzai government (through diplomatic means) to institute the rule of law; to prosecute those involved in extra-judicial executions; to put a moratorium on the death penalty and all pending executions; and to reform law enforcement and the judiciary to reduce endemic corruption. Diplomacy is obviously undertaken at a federal level and I don’t think that it is particularly effective given the circumstances Afghanistan is in…but I can’t think of anything else. In terms of practical things *we* can do, as individuals, I think the best bet is to get involved with an asylum project near to where you live, if they exist, as there are plenty of Afghan asylum seekers that could do with a little compassion, friendship and understanding.
Sure, it is not going to change things in Afghanistan, but it may make a big change in the life of one Afghan.
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Unfortunately, the present government in Afghanistan also contains many warlords who have committed notorious war crimes in the past
They are a hard group to convince about the worth of womens’ rights.
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Yes, we can all do something to help. Read “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortensen (I tried commenting about him above, but maybe having links in my comment is why it hasn’t appeared, so I will just say google him) and/or donate to the Central Asia Institute.
Mortensen is building schools so that girls can get an education too, and that is the way through this awful way of life for the Afghan people.
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I haven’t watched the footage, but did see a still of the group of villagers crowded around the area behind the camera – disgusting how they are all there to witness her murder – not to protest it. There is not a woman to be seen, all men including young boys seeming to supporting what is happening. Just appalling
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That picture is so sad. What a horrible world we live in??!!! I just feel very very sad that this happens and all of those men (pigs) think they did nothing wrong.
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Horrendous.
And the important question is – what can each of us personally do to positively influence this disgusting situation – however small that action may be….
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I hope there is an answer to your comment beyond my own. I have no answer, but I say, I will stand with you if there is something that can be done.
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We can confront sexism and gendercide anywhere and everywhere we see it and let everyone we come across know that it’s not okay. Demand nothing less than absolute equality for women everywhere, all the time, so that these thugs have no pathetic, weak little excuses and arguments to cling to.
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no words
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This is so sad. It makes me feel sick.
Out of interest, what happens to the other man that was involved in the adultery, if it occured? Is he punished?
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The worst part of this is that the man is usually not punished. It may have been, and probably was a rape, and the woman is condemned because of it. They will blame the woman for putting herself in the situation.
So no, the man probably won’t be punished at all.
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I don’t about this specific instance but often the man is not punished for the rape in these countries. It is usually blamed on the woman for putting herself in a situation where it could happen.
If they are punished it is very rarely by death.
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The saddest thing about this to me is that the poor woman just accepted that there was no way out – she hardly even flinched, even when she was being shot at.
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Maybe she was just standing strong in the knowledge she had done nothing wrong x
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I’m curious about the suicide rate of women in Afghanistan and similar countries. Part of me wondered if she was accepting her fate as some sort of release from what I imagine may not have been a great life.
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Yes i thought the same. Not long ago i saw something on sbs about the skyrocketing use of heroin amongst men and boys in Afganistan, hundreds of people huddled under a bridge using, it was just heartbreaking to see young kids with their fathers taking drugs and wondered if the women are doing this in their homes as well to escape the reality of their lives.
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Its nothing to do with religon its all about power and pure evil!
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I don’t believe that “evil” is a separate force – but some humans are definitely evil – because it suits them…….they’ve contrived “religions” to give themselves permission to do as they please – particularly to women. Their punishment is that they will go to their graves never having been genuinely loved or mourned by any woman who they’ve harmed – or even by the women who’ve witnessed their cruelty.
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I read about this a few hours ago in the paper. I was almost too scared to read the article because I knew how horrific it was going to be.
And like Mumof4 says below, I cannot watch the video, for the same reasons she mentions. The article and the photographs are enough to haunt me.
How can human beings do this to one another? How can human beings be so affected by their chosen god?
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From the commentary that goes along with the video it sounds like there was a dispute between some older male members of the Taliban over her. The solution? Torture then kill her. Absolutely sickening, just vile.
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I just have no words. How can people do this to each other? I will never understand it. I can only be grateful that my children are growing up in Australia and desperately hope they never have to encounter anything so sinister in their lives.
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I am really saddened about what happened to this woman and I am appalled that they basically have no sense of love or respect for her as a human being. There was no justice here and it appears she had no real voice to defend herself. Women have just as much worth as men. I believe that we should not be treated like animals just because some people are so narrow-minded, arrogant and egotistical to believe that they are “right” and that they therefore have a right to take a human life. Furthermore how dare they use God to justify killing this young woman. It’s disgusting.
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A post about parenting choices regularly gets 500+ comments. I’m guessing this will be lucky to get 50. There’s a whole lot of outrage that can be whipped up over hospital birth vs. homebirth vs. freebirth…here, not so much.
I, for one, would like to say: please Mamamia, continue to bring us these articles shining a light on things that we really do need to care about, things that might put our own problems into a different perspective. Perhaps they don’t generate as much traffic, as many comments, as those on parenting choices or make-up application.
However, I’d argue that their value in terms of the discourse that we ought to be having – recognising our place in the world, geo-politically but also in terms of the economically-privileged space that we currently occupy and how we can use our good fortune to help others – is almost infinitely more than the articles which result in hundreds of comments attacking the parenting choices of others.
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Yes Anon. You have written a reply very similar to what I was going to write.
I won’t repeat, I’ll just agree.
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Here here.
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I agree. It is so easy to get complacent, we need these reminders.
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There is plenty of ‘heavy’ news available from other sources. Try watching the SBS news, it’s way different from what you see on the commercial channels.
I hope that people are not just relying on sites like this one and what they see on commercial television to keep them informed.
Personally I come to this site to get a break from all the really serious stuff.
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Thanks Anonymous. I watch the ABC and SBS news and also read The Guardian, the Independent and Liberation on a daily basis. As a member of Medicins Sans Frontieres, War Child, Reprieve and Human Rights Watch, I also keep up to date on these issues through their updates in my FB newsfeed, through newsletters, through their websites etc.
If Mamamia became all about this kind of ‘heavy’ news it would lose its demographic – I accept that. That’s not to say that there isn’t a time and place for raising these issues every now and then and directing people to where they can find out a bit more about it. In some respects, I’d say it is even more effective for Mamamia to do it in this way – they have an audience which is not necessarily the figurative ‘choir’ who actually seek out this kind of news by, for example, watching SBS.
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Sorry I didn’t mean to aim my comment directly at you. The sanctimonious tone of your comment already gave you away as the kind of person who would watch the real news, read newspapers etc.
I guess the point I was trying to make is that it is nice to be able to go somewhere to unwind and talk about the lighter issues without being confronted by something upsetting. They already have an occasional ‘real’ news story on here, any more and it wouldn’t be the same site.
(ps. I also watch the SBS and ABC news and read 2 newspapers (don’t have time for more, I have 2 kids and a p.t. job) and I donate monthly to M.S.F. and sponsor a child. It doesn’t stop me from enjoying the parenting articles.)
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No probs!
I probably enjoy the real news stories more and the parenting stuff less but each to her own. In any case, you’re right – there are plenty of other places to go for real news.
I suppose I just get really frustrated sometimes when I see this major lack of perspective that we have in Australia. Having spent years myself living and working in third world countries, I’ve seen real difficulty up close and personal, even if I’ve not had to experience it. It is one thing to see it on the news and be able to switch it off; another entirely to be surrounded by it.
But even those who see it on the news I think are in a better position to get a sense of perspective about their own lives and difficulties than those who float through life oblivious. I’m not saying that it is Mamamia’s responsibility to shove that in the faces of people who come here for a bit of an escape or light relief, but I do believe that sometimes when we’re dwelling about how the carbon tax is going to affect us, or about our horrid MIL or SIL, or about our political system, it is useful to get a reminder of how other people have it.
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Yep, I watch SBS and ABC news. Mamamia gives me a nice break from all of that.
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Great comment, Anon.
I guess the reason this post won’t get many comments is probably because there’s no discussion. We’re all just sickened to the core, there’s not much to say other than, ‘This is wrong’.
Still, it’d be nice if as many people as possible came here to make a post, even if it is just to voice their sorrow.
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Thanks Anna. I get that completely – how many of us are really going to argue anything other than that it is horrific, we can’t believe that this goes on, what can we do about it type of arguments.
I suppose what I was trying to illustrate is that I hope that the editorial direction isn’t influenced primarily by the number of comments that a story gets. I’m not sure how many hits this post will get – presumably less than those which are linked in other sites, such as AVN or breastfeeding or homebirth type fora. I really just wanted to express that I believe these posts have real value, even if the number of comments doesn’t show it to be the most popular or traffic-worthy of posts.
And absolutely, it would be great if many people posted, just to show that this is something important – not to necessarily be posted every day, but every once in a while.
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I guess the reason posts like these don’t get the same number of comments is that something like this is just too uncomprehensible.
I only ever comment on posts when I think I have something significantly valuable to say.
In relation to something as horrific as this, I have no experience, no information or no soap box opinion to impart (other than I think it’s so dreadfully sad).
This doesn’t mean I take these issues lightly though.
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What I just wrote above to Anna’s response, which was quite like yours!
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There are so many things done in this world in the name of ‘religion’ and ‘tradition’.
Any violent, or cruel act done in the name of tradition should be condemned – this horrific act included.
Thanks Jamila for bringing this to our attention.
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It’s horrible that they are using their religion as an excuse to commit an atrocity. So un-Islamic.
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I don’t even know what to say…. I feel sick, angry, upset…. this is just truly MESSED up! It just absolutely blows my mind that in 2012 there are people out there in the world who think that this is O.K.
People who watch these things happen and not only do nothing about it but encourage it and cheer it on. All I can say is I am truly blessed and lucky to have had the life I’ve had and still do.
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It’s sickening to see a young woman murdered in this way. The piss weak reason for her murder is pretty sickening too.
What tops it is that the man she allegedly comitted adultery with was not, and will not be punished.
I’m pleased and proud thqat our soldiers are over there. They know about this stuff first hand, yet we need a video to be outraged about it. It’s such a disgusting way to treat women I can’t find the words to describe how I feel about it.
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And this is why Australia cannot pull out on the war against terror in Afghanistan.
If we turn a blind eye to these atrocities, who is worse? The Taliban?
Or it is us, if we choose not to help these people stand up for themselves in their own country, allowing them to continue terrorising the vulnerable citizens.
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I’m not convinced that the war can be won. Not many experts are either.
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I guess thousands of years of doing the same thing the same way in the name of religion will take some change. Change however small, is a good thing. It may take centuries for troops and aid in Afganistan to turn the lives around for the citizens.
Not good just giving up and putting our heads in the sand though!
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The reason we are at war in Afghanistan is because of Terrorist training regimes, which threaten us, and has absolutely nothing to do with the war. Australia and the super powers turn a blind eye to this and worse everyday. Genocide goes unnoticed, or not worried about it, because we have no vested interest in the region.
Honor killings, just like this one, occur everyday throughout Africa, most of Asia, and Eastern Europe, and yes, we do turn a blind eye to it, because our Government, and the American government simple do not care. It doesn’t affect us, so nothing will be done. Consider the Rwanda Civil War and the three million people who were murdered in the Tutsi miniority population, and then head to Souther Sudan, and consider the same lack of appeal. What about the Bosnian war? People waited and waited and waited for the US to intervene, and when they did, the US dropped bombs instead of aid. Shall I continue?
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If you’re a real new-o-phile, you will also notice that honour killings even take place amongst some groups in places such as America and Australia.
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This would have been thoroughly enlightening, if not for your rude tone. Please do elaborate on these honor killings you have noticed in Australia and America. I think it would add a great deal to the conversation.
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Yes, we are so lucky to live in Australia. I can’t stand people who use their religion to excuse shocking behaviour.
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It’s heartbreaking to think about what happens in less fair countries around the world. I am forever grateful to be born in a country like ours. A country where I wasn’t forced into slavery as a child, or sold or married off, or had my genitals mutilated, or restricted from an education, or starving to death, or living in constant fear of abuse or death.
I wish we could help everyone who isn’t anywhere near as lucky as us. And I wish more people realised how lucky we are.
This is an amazing, but disturbing film, based on real events. I recommend it
The Stoning of Soraya M
http://www.thestoning.com
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These barbaric practices remind me of the witch burning that was popular in the 15th to 18th centuries.
You could pretty much accuse anyone you didn’t like of being a witch and the town would hysterically kill them for you.
I suspect Najiba’s husband just wanted a new wife.
Disgusting.
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Its likely she was raped, but they consider the rape her fault making her unfaithful so they can kill her.
Its absolutely disgusting what these men do in the name of religion.
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As an Iranian (I was born in Iran but moved to Australia at the age of 5)… this movie just made me sick! Things like this movie and this article are just too much for me to bear. I love my country, my culture and my people but there are SOME of those who do things like this that just make me feel in a sense ashamed and disappointed of the way my people/culture/country are viewed by others.
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This makes me sick….I can’t believe that things like this still happen. There are no words.
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I’m not going to press on the link and watch that. I just can’t, because I know those images will never leave my mind. What is happening in the ‘name of god’ , is sickening . That’s one of the reasons why I don’t believe in god.
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I’m an atheist, but you can’t blame anyone’s god for this. This is 100 percent the work of man. Whatever justification they’ve used for it is almost beside the point.
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We understand it’s the work of man, but these are religious zealots, who eat , breathe and live god. Nothing else matters . These atrocities are carried out In the ‘ name of god’ , because human life is expendable to them. We understand there is no justifying what they’re doing, but for them, and those that cheer, they are doing it in the name of god.
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I think you need to try and understand the difference between God and Religion.
God is a spiritual belief that transcends man. It’s a spiritual energy that people believe and feel.
Religion is a man made construct of rules, traditions and laws – humans use religion as an excuse to commit terrible acts and enforce ridiculous rules – from banning contraception, to killing people, to claiming they are the rightful owners of land – this is not God’s doing, this is man.
This is why although I believe in God, I hate organised religion. We need to be very careful not to confuse the two.
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Where was God when this woman was slaughtered?
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I don’t know how to answer that because I don’t believe in a God that is an all powerful bearded man.
I believe moreso in something bigger than us – be it energy, spirit etc as God. I believe that God is present when beautiful things happen – like the beauty in nature, the birth of a child etc (without sounding completely lame!)
Things like the above post are just terrible things done by man in the name of religion.
But in a way I do see your point, it makes me wonder why terrible things like this happen. Some will say free will, but I just don’t know.
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Thankyou for explaining that. So I should say I don’t believe in god or religion. I thought you had to be religious to believe in god. Also why do they yell out when they’re commiting these atrocities ‘god is great’ if god has nothing to do with it ? It might not be your god that you believe in, but people do believe in different gods. I , on the other hand believe in none.
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I’m sure some people would think you have to be religious to believe, but I personally think you can believe in something bigger than yourself without buying into a mainstream religion.
I also think it’s more than fair to not believe in anything, as you do.
However I think the men above shouting ‘God is Great’ are just using the name to justify their own beliefs. Just like the Catholic church hid behind God to build wealth etc. Twisted people can use the ‘word of God’ to do terrible things
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I think we can blame god for this though can’t we? The article I read in the paper today specifically states that the man who killed this woman read a passage from the Koran before shooting her saying ‘We cannot forgive her, God tells us to finish her.’
I’m not trying to be inflammatory, just wondering out loud…
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There is nothing in the Islam faith saying what they did was right, and there is also nothing in the Islam faith saying that it is a woman’s fault is she is raped by a man other than her husband, which if you watch the video the commentary said is what happened.
the only thing that can be blamed for this poor woman’s death, along with many other women is the extreme and distorted interpretations of the religion.
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I would probably disagree.
That crazy guy that went on that shooting spree in Norway said he did it ‘for Norway’ and in the name of his country. But no one in Norway wanted that at all. I think the same could apply to God here. They seem to be using God as an excuse and twisting anything they can to get away with it.
(PS. I’m just thinking out loud too!)
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A good thinking outloud.
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Two Minds & Anon – Yes, I have to admit (despite my comment above), that I do also wonder sometimes if these kinds of people do use the ‘God excuse’ for such abominable behaviour. And if they do, how must other people from their religion feel about these monsters using their god as the excuse? Hmmm… it’s all so messy isn’t it?
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