Targeting women: Malala, Taliban’s third female victim

The ruthless militants have previously targeted and killed two women from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.


Asad Zia October 11, 2012

PESHAWAR:


The attack on a 14-year-old girl shook the nation, but Malala Yousafzai is not the first female to be targeted by the Taliban.


The ruthless militants have previously targeted and killed two women from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Female empowerment

Earlier this year, on July 5, militants killed Khyber Agency-based social worker Farida Afridi. Her crime, purportedly, was to be an agent of change in the conservative tribal agency.

Afridi was among the founding members of a local organisation, Society for Appraisal and Women Empowerment in Rural Areas (Sawera).

She was on her way to her office in the Hayatabad locality of Peshawar, from her hometown Ghundi village in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency, when militants opened fire, killing her on the spot.

Moral policing

The Taliban’s first female victim was Shabnam, from the courtesans’ quarters in Swat’s capital Mingora.

When she refused to bow down to moral policing, some militants dragged her out of home and shot her dead in the Green Chowk of Mingora.

The square later earned notoriety for executions and beheadings during the Taliban reign in Swat.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11th, 2012. 

COMMENTS (10)

lovePak | 11 years ago | Reply

I'm a bit confused here. I live in Pakistan and most of popular beliefs are a bit different from what I see on ET. Most of whom I know regard the Malala incident as fake, and are totally against another operation. Not that I side with the Taliban, but an operation does not benefit anyone.

Amir | 11 years ago | Reply

Attaching n killing of women by Taliban itself a proof how manly they are. On top of it calling themselves Muslims a worst kind of insult to our religion n faith. They are not humans but mad dogs n must be hunted n hanged.

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