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Monday, September 25, 2006

AFGHANI WOMEN'S ADVOCATE MURDERED


Safia Ahmed-jan, the provincial director of Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs, was murdered on her way to work on September 25th, 2006. Retribution for her efforts to educate women.

I found the following on Wikinews:

"Safia Ahmed-jan taught at a girls' school and was a high-school principal in
Khandahar prior to the Taliban's 1996 rise to power in Afghanistan. When the
Taliban regime banned education for girls and forbade women from working outside
the home, she ran an underground school for girls at her home, said her son
Naqibullah, speaking to the Associated Press.
After the Taliban government
was overthrown in 2001, Ahmed-jan became the provincial chief for women's
affairs in 2002, when the ministry was established and has since then held that
position, worked for women's rights and particularly, championed the cause of
educating girls. Her secretary, Abdullah Khan told Associated Press that among
her most successful projects were the vocational training schools she opened in
Khandahar, where almost 1000 women were taught baking, tailoring and other
skills.
Ahmed-jan has also been fiercely critical of the repression of women
during the Taliban rule, in a region that has remained conservative and emerged
as a hotbed of the Taliban's insurgent activity. Her requests for personal
security guards and transport went unheeded by the government, according to
local media reports, though her nephew, Muhammad Asif told the New York Times
that Ahmed-jan preferred to keep a low profile and used a taxi or public
transport even though her office maintained cars and drivers."

A truly courageous woman!

How can you respect a religion that holds no regard, whatsoever, for their women? And that applies to any religion or religious sect that represses women. I certainly don't!

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