Protesters mark 1 year since killing of Afghan woman

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Afghan actors perform in a play depicting the 2015 lynching of Afghan woman Farkhunda, in Kabul on March 17. Farkhunda died on March 19, 2015 after being beaten with sticks and stones, thrown from a roof, run over with a car, set on fire, then dumped in a river, as police allegedly looked on, after being falsely accused of burning a Quran. (AFP)
Afghan actors perform in a play depicting the 2015 lynching of Afghan woman Farkhunda, in Kabul on March 17. Farkhunda died on March 19, 2015 after being beaten with sticks and stones, thrown from a roof, run over with a car, set on fire, then dumped in a river, as police allegedly looked on, after being falsely accused of burning a Quran. (AFP)

KABUL, March 18, (AFP): Wearing masks bearing an impression of her bloodied face, dozens of Afghans protested in Kabul Thursday to demand justice for a woman savagely killed a year ago after being falsely accused of blasphemy.

The mob killing of the 27-year-old woman known as Farkhunda in broad daylight last March triggered angry nationwide protests and drew global attention to the treatment of Afghan women. Protesters, some with fake blood on their faces, chanted “Justice for Farkhunda!” on the banks of Kabul River where the frenzied mob turned on her. “The murder of Farkhunda touched us all. It was an unforgettable crime against humanity,” Laila Qarayi, a women rights activist.

Street plays reenacted her grisly death, symbolising public anger over a Supreme Court ruling last week that upheld reduced sentences for the men convicted of her murder. The court vacated the death penalty in four cases, reduced prison terms to 20 years in three others and 10 years in the fourth.

It also cut the sentences of nine other defendants. “It is a matter of great shame for our political and justice systems that justice was not delivered in this case,” said Kabul University lecturer Saifuddin Saihoon. A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told AFP that the country’s attorney general has been “instructed to make justice for Farkhunda his top priority and review the case”.

But when contacted by AFP, a spokesman for the attorney general said they had not received instructions from the president for any review. Farkhunda was attacked on the banks of the Kabul River after an amulet seller, whom she had reportedly castigated for peddling superstition, falsely accused her of burning a copy of the Holy Quran.

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