Posted on 03/21/2021 7:37:58 AM PDT by BenLurkin
KABUL, Afghanistan — It's not the risk of contracting COVID-19 that keeps journalist Fatima Roshanian home. It's the murders.
Roshanian scaled back her movements after she found her name on three different lists circulating on Afghan social media, claiming to be of people the Taliban want to kill. On one list, she's number 11.
"They are after people who are well-known, who are against the values of this society, who speak out," she says.
It's not the first time Roshanian has been threatened. She's offended plenty of conservatives in her life in her job as the editor of an Afghan feminist magazine, Nimrokh. It covers topics like sex, virginity, periods, marital affairs — all shocking by Afghan standards. But this time, she says, she's taking the threats more seriously, because "you see journalists and other people are being killed everyday, everywhere, on the streets, in their homes, in the bazaars."
Over the past six months, shadowy assassins have murdered influential and prominent Afghans, including journalists, human rights activists, judicial workers, doctors and clerics. The killings began escalating last September, when peace talks began between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
It should have been a time marked by hope. Instead, the United Nations said in a February report that more than 700 people had been murdered in targeted killings in 2020. More than 540 were wounded. The U.N. noted it was a 45% increase in the number of civilian casualties compared to 2019. So far this year, more than 60 people have been the victims of targeted killings, according to an NPR tally of incidents reported by an Afghan violence monitoring site.
"It has been unprecedented," says Shaharzad Akbar, the chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. She says she's never seen anything like the scope of these assassinations, "in terms of how many people have been killed, in a short time period and how it hasn't stopped."
The killed include Faiz Mohammad Fayez, a religious scholar and university professor, gunned down earlier this month as he walked to a mosque for morning prayers. They include the surgeon Dr. Khalil-ur-Rahman Narmgo, who was gunned down in February.
They include prosecutor Mirwais Samadi, shot dead by gunmen while on his way to work; and television presenter Malala Maiwand, killed alongside her driver in December. Three other women from the same station where Maiwand worked were shot dead in March.
In response, one Afghan media rights group has flung up shelters for threatened journalists. "They don't have any safe place, so they come here," says Wahida Faizi of the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee. Faizi says the group is also distributing bullet-proof vests and helping some of those threatened leave the country.
It's not clear who is behind the carnage. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the murders of five women: Maiwand, her three colleagues and a doctor.
The U.S. and other Western nations blame the Taliban. "The Taliban bears responsibility for the majority of this targeted violence," noted a January statement from the U.S. embassy in Kabul signed by the European Union, NATO's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan and the diplomatic missions for 12 Western countries.
Many Afghans agree, like one feminist who requested anonymity because she recently received a death threat over Facebook. She believes it's because she helped women flee their violent husbands.
In an interview with NPR, she said it's no coincidence that the killings stepped up after Afghan peace talks began.
"The Taliban are demonstrating their power," she says, a way for them to flex their muscle in negotiations, while also silencing those who might disagree with them and their hard-line methods. "They are targeting journalists and civil society — people who can raise their voice. People who can tell the international community what is happening. They want to shut them up."
The Taliban deny responsibility. "This is a false propaganda of the enemy," said a spokesman, who uses the name Zabihullah Mujahid. He blamed Afghan government intelligence officials for the murders.
Roshanian thinks it's more complicated. She believes the death lists being shared on social media are actually worked up by locals: conservatives, Taliban sympathizers, people with grudges.
She thinks they're doxing for the Taliban — revealing the identities of people online in order to entice militants to harm them. "These lists tell the Taliban: these are the people who are making trouble, who are putting new thoughts in women's heads. They identify us so the Taliban can kill us."
One cleric, Ustadh Abdul Salaam Abed, who survived a bomb blast that struck his vehicle, believes Afghan intelligence officials are also targeting people.
"Intelligence has a direct hand," he says. "There are people in the system who are scared of the nation's voices, scared of the coming peace," he says. He punctuated his conversation with nervous giggles, saying he could hear beeps on the line that he believed were a result of his phone being bugged.
Officials for the Afghan government declined to comment for this story.
Amnesty International recently criticized the government for not moving on the creation of a body that would protect human rights defenders. Other diplomats have said that while the government is investigating these murders, they have done little to communicate with victims' families or the media on the steps they are taking to address the violence.
A mission to intimidate
Akbar, from the human rights commission, says even if the killers are unknown, the intention is clear. "It's a deliberate attempt to kill people or scare them away from the country," she says. "Unfortunately, it has worked."
The killings are already impacting female reporters in particular. Faizi's organization recently published a report noting that more than 300 women — one-fifth of all who work in Afghan media — have quit their jobs as a result of the killings, and because of insecurities surrounding COVID-19.
They include a young reporter who requested anonymity because out of concern attention would trigger a death threat. She fought her family to become a reporter — a profession they said was not honorable for a woman. She found a job, but then the murders began. Fearing for her life, she quit. "Now the world feels dark," she tells NPR. "I am always thinking: what if this is permanent? What if I never work again?"
There's been other secondary victims of these killings, too. Karima Rahimyar, a school teacher and girls education activist, received threats over Facebook. She, defiantly, continues to work. But she pulled her own daughters out of university — until the danger passes, or until they can flee. "I'm scared for my daughters," she says.
Roshanian, the feminist magazine editor, now works from home, but her friends urge her to flee. "They all tell me, 'Fatima, the things you are doing right now for this country is useless. It won't impact anyone.'" She responds: "If you are thinking like this, and I start thinking like you – what will be left here?"
“NPR - National Propaganda Radio”
Roshanian....can we replace her with AOC ?
............the term “feminist” in America is roughly as low as being referred to as a Democrat. This brave woman doesn’t deserve to be called either!
AKA National Palestine Radio. I like how they slip in the word “conservative” to describe the savage Taliban.
Western journalists and even diplomats have been chronically deceived working in the Third world. They spend almost all their time meeting and living among urban elites who for the most part are detribalized and already share their values. At most these urban people represent probably less than 10% of the population. If they spent time investigating the countryside they would find that the vast majority of the population is poor, uneducated, reflexively superstitious and backward. These are the real people and do not share the vaules of the westerners or the urban elites. In fact they are extremely hostile since they find those values threatening in almost every way imaginable. America has suffered greatly when it assumes that “nation building” will transform these nations as post war Germany and Japan were transformed.Always felt that instead of sending armies, the US would have been better off distributing millions of computers or smart phones with unbreakable internet connections and then perhaps return in 30 years.Fact is you cannot change these cultures with force.
On a completely unrelated note, the FBI has rounded up various Oath Keepers, the leader of the Proud Boys, and others who have objected to the current regime, or who were part of last regime or who supported them.
Our side should start referring to the Chinese Communists as the Chinese Liberal Communists.
The article does not explain that the words “conservative” and “feminist” have wildly different meanings in Afghanistan than they have in the United States. If the author wanted to truly convey what is happening, he would have done better not to use those words. Perhaps substituting religious extremist and using a phrase like wanting to bring Afghanistan into the twenty-first century.
The problem for the West is, any Muslim can kill anyone who disagrees with him as long as he feels like he is doing the best thing for Islam. But, if you believe in the rule of law, you can’t kill anyone. Only the state can. And, let’s face it, in most Western countries the “state” is “woke” and will not do anything to protect those who believe in the rule of law. Portland is a good example of this.
Islam is like the Mafia except you don’t have to bow and pray to the Don 5 times a day .
Lol, yes! Or “Progressive Communists”.
“The killings are already impacting female reporters in particular. Faizi’s organization recently published a report noting that more than 300 women — one-fifth of all who work in Afghan media — have quit their jobs as a result of the killings, and because of insecurities surrounding COVID-19. They include a young reporter who requested anonymity because out of concern attention would trigger a death threat. She fought her family to become a reporter — a profession they said was not honorable for a woman. She found a job, but then the murders began. Fearing for her life, she quit. “Now the world feels dark,” she tells NPR. “I am always thinking: what if this is permanent? What if I never work again?” There’s been other secondary victims of these killings, too. Karima Rahimyar, a school teacher and girls education activist, received threats over Facebook. She, defiantly, continues to work. But she pulled her own daughters out of university — until the danger passes, or until they can flee. “I’m scared for my daughters,” she says.”
I truly couldn’t imagine why an American male would insert himself into this situation by joining the military; anyone who thinks we’ll convince these primitive Muslims that our “gay marriage”, abortion-on-demand, broken home “culture” is superior is delusional. The West is importing these primitives as replacement populations because our own rejection of WASP ideals has led us to decades of negative birthrates.
Gosh, that's a shame. And after we straighten up Afghanistan, maybe we should finish up in the Balkans, and then in Vietnam.
We should have been out of Afghanistan 17-18 years ago.
Right; it is clear war profiteers will never end the “endless wars”. This is a big factor in why Trump had to be removed from office by any means necessary; he was quite vocal in criticizing the endless wars...
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