Political Execution of a Woman

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"Political Execution of a Woman"

Life under the Taliban

Video still

By: The Associated Press/Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan

Date: November 17, 1999

Source: Available from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, <http://www.rawa.org/murder-w.htm>.

About the Author: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977, as an independent political and social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan.

INTRODUCTION

The Taliban (derived from the Pashtun/Persian word talib, meaning "student of Islam" or "student of the book," referring to the Koran) is the name of the Islamist regime that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. The Taliban rose to power in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union–backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992. In the resulting power vacuum, numerous mujahideen (Islamic guerrilla fighter) warlords competed for money, power, and influence, and the nation devolved into civil war. The Taliban, led by Mullah Mohammed Omar, emerged from the chaos as an effective fighting force, and many villages sought out Taliban fighters to protect them from competing warlords.

In 1994, Omar fled to neighboring Pakistan, but, later that year, he returned with a force of some 1,500 militia armed by the Pakistanis and with arms previously supplied to the mujahideen by the United States. Over the next two years, through both military and diplomatic victories, the Taliban gained control of most of the country, including the capital city, Kabul. In 1997, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

Life under the Taliban regime, which enforced strict adherence to Islamic law, was oppressive. The list of items or activities banned by the Taliban was extensive: cameras, televisions, radios, VCRs, movies, the Internet, all of which Taliban authorities assumed could be used to promote non-Muslim ideas. Even kite flying was banned because it was a Buddhist practice. In March 2001, the regime ordered the destruction of two massive Buddhist statues carved into the cliff sides at Bamiyan. These statues, one 1,800 and the other 1,500 years old, were part of the nation's cultural heritage, and their destruction was condemned internationally.

The position of women under the Taliban was particularly precarious. Women were required to be completely covered in public and were physically punished for exposing their faces or wearing see-through socks or sandals. Their shoes could not click when they walked, lest the sound excite men. They could have their fingertips amputated if they wore nail polish, and they could be whipped for wearing white shoes. They were not allowed to work outside the home (except in women's hospitals), attend school, or appear on television or in any kind of photograph. Women who lived in houses facing the street had to paint over the windows so that no one could see inside.

The Taliban regime was brutal in its exaction of justice. Men could be jailed for wearing beards that were not long enough. The hands of thieves were amputated. Many executions were conducted publicly, usually in sports stadiums; robbers had their throats slit, prostitutes and murderers were shot (the latter by the victim's family, sometimes by the victim's small children), and women adulterers were stoned to death.

The following still from a video shows the public execution of a woman, known only as Zarmeena, who was found guilty of killing her husband after enduring domestic violence. It was the first public execution in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

PRIMARY SOURCE

"POLITICAL EXECUTION OF A WOMAN"

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

Zarmeena was a 35-year-old woman, the mother of several children. At age 16, she entered an arranged marriage. Her husband was a police officer He allegedly subjected his wife to nightly beatings. She conspired with one of her daughters to kill him; the daughter actually delivered the fatal blow to her father. After Zarmeena's arrest, she was reportedly taken to an unsanitary jail cell where she was beaten with steel chains for two days before she confessed.

On November 16, 1999, Zarmeena was led into Kabul's Olympic Stadium. The Taliban had announced in advance that the execution would take place. Before up to 30,000 spectators, including Zarmeena's children, she was shot three times in the head. A video of the execution was taken with a camera smuggled into the stadium by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and eventually broadcast in the United Kingdom as part of a documentary film titled Beneath the Veil.

After the August 7, 1998, bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, the international community more closely scrutinized Taliban rule in Afghanistan. United States intelligence services identified numerous terrorist training camps, including those run by Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, located within Afghanistan. On August 20, 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered cruise missile bombings of four of those training sites.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States, convinced that the Taliban was giving safe harbor to Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, led a coalition that invaded Afghanistan later that year. The Taliban was routed, and in October 2004, the nation elected a president. Parliamentary elections were scheduled for September 2005.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Latifa. My Forbidden Face: Growing Up under the Taliban: A Young Woman's Story. New York: Miramax Books, 2003.

Audio and Visual Media

Rashid, Ahmed, and Nadia May. Taliban: Library Edition (MP3 CD). Blackstone Audiobooks, 2002 .

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