Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/sushmita-banerjee-killing-by-taliban-adds-to-fears-of-women-rights-in-afghanistan/1/305797.html
The killing of Sushmita Banerjee, whose memoir about life under
Taliban rule was turned into a Bollywood movie, was the latest in a
string of attacks on prominent women in Afghanistan. The incident has
added to fears of women's rights in a country where many are barely
allowed outside the house.
According to
reports, women will face setbacks after the U.S.-led foreign forces
fully withdraw in 2014. Sushmita was shot dead on Thursday by suspected
members of the Islamist militia, officials said in Kabul.
The
militants arrived before dawn at Banerjee's residence in eastern
Paktika province, which lies in Afghanistan's east - a region where the
Taliban are especially influential. Her husband, Jaanbaz Khan, answered
the door, only to be quickly bound and blindfolded, provincial police
chief Gen. Dawlat Khan Zadran told The Associated Press.
The
militants then dragged Banerjee outside, took her to a nearby road and
shot her at least 15 times, Zadran said. Banerjee, who officials said
was in her 40s, was buried Thursday morning, a relative told AP. She
lived in Daygan Sorqala village, and was well-known as a medical worker
in the area, with special training in gynecology, said the relative,
Zafar Khan.
Taliban spokesmen did not answer phone calls seeking comment late Thursday.
Banerjee
- who was from Kolkata, India - wrote "A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife." It
later became the basis for the 2003 film "Escape from Taliban."
The
book described how she met Jaanbaz in India and agreed to marry him
despite her parents' disapproval and the fact that he was Muslim while
she was Hindu. According to summaries of the book online, Banerjee moved
to Afghanistan as Jaanbaz's second wife, only to find that life would
become unbearable with the Taliban increasing their hold over the
country.
The Taliban militia, which rose to
prominence in 1994 and officially ruled the country from 1996-2001,
placed severe restrictions on women.
In an
interview posted on India's Rediff news, entertainment and shopping
website, Banerjee described trying to flee Afghanistan multiple times to
get away from the Taliban, and how she was ordered executed as a result
of her attempts. She made it back to Kolkata in August of 1995.
"I
still remember the day I stepped on Indian soil for the first time
after I had left," the interview quotes her as saying. "It was raining
outside. People were scurrying for shelter. But I didn't run. I just
stood there and let the rain wash off my pain. I felt if I could bear so
much in Afghanistan, I can surely bear my motherland's rain. I don't
know how long I stood there, but I won't forget that day."
Her
book was published in 1997, about nine years after she got married,
according to the interview, conducted around the time of the film's 2003
release but reposted Thursday in light of Banerjee's death. The film
starred actress Manisha Koirala.
Militants have targeted prominent women several times in recent months in Afghanistan.
Last
month, officials confirmed that Fariba Ahmadi Kakar, a lawmaker who
represents Kandahar province in parliament, was kidnapped and was being
held in exchange for four insurgents detained by the government. Also in
August, insurgents ambushed the convoy of a female Afghan senator,
seriously wounding her in the attack and killing her 8-year-old daughter
and a bodyguard.
Senator Rouh Gul Khirzad's husband, son and another daughter were also wounded in the attack in the Muqur district of Ghazni.
No comments:
Post a Comment