Mah
Gul, 20, was murdered after her mother-in-law tried to force her to
sleep with man at her home in the Herat province in the west of the
country.
Provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Savedzada confirmed
that his officers had arrested the victim’s husband, mother-in-law,
father-in-law, and man who killed her, known as Najibullah.
Savedzada
added that Gul married her husband four months ago and that there had
been several previous attempts to force her into prostitution.
Najibullah
was paraded at a press conference following his arrest where he said
that the mother-in-law lured him into killing the woman by telling him
she was a prostitute.
He said: ‘It was around 2:00 am when Gul’s
husband left for his bakery. I came down and with the help of her
mother-in-law killed her with a knife.’
The murder of Mah Gul
comes against a backdrop of a world outcry over the shooting by the
Taliban of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who had become a voice against
the suppression of women’s rights.
While Yousafzai’s case has
made world headlines, Afghans have made the point that oppression and
violence against women are commonplace in the country.
Abdul
Qader Rahimi, the regional director of the government-backed human
rights commission in western Afghanistan, said violence against women
had dramatically increased in the region recently.
‘There is no
doubt violence against women has increased. So far this year we have
registered 100 cases of violence against women in the western region,’
he said, adding that many cases go unreported.
‘But at least in Gul’s case, we are glad the murderer has been arrested and brought to justice,’ he said.
Last
year, in a case that made international headlines, police rescued a
teenage girl, Sahar Gul, who was beaten and locked up in a toilet for
five months after she defied her in-laws who tried to force her into
prostitution.
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