Masood Saifullah - Afghan Women Cry For Help After Journalist Mina Mangal's Killing
A well-known Afghan
journalist and political adviser was assassinated in broad day light over the
weekend, demonstrating once again the poor state of women’s safety in the
war-ravaged country.
Mina Mangal – who had worked as a presenter for several Afghan television channels before becoming cultural adviser for parliament – was gunned down by unidentified gunmen on Saturday when she was leaving home for work in the nation’s capital, Kabul.
Mina Mangal – who had worked as a presenter for several Afghan television channels before becoming cultural adviser for parliament – was gunned down by unidentified gunmen on Saturday when she was leaving home for work in the nation’s capital, Kabul.
Police in Afghanistan
have launched a manhunt for Mangal’s ex-husband after her parents said he was
responsible for her killing. Mangal’s brother, Shakib Mangal, said that his
sister had once been abducted by her ex-husband’s family. “Her in-laws had
abducted her two years ago but we were able to get her released with the help
of some government officials and tribal elders,” Mangal said. “Her ex-husband,
however, continued threatening Mina Mangal.”
He said his family
has now filed a complaint against both his sister’s ex-husband and that
man’s parents. Kabul police cite family disputes as the motive behind the
killing. But Mangal’s brother stresses that the disputes had roots in his
sister’s work and fight for young women and girls. Shakib Mangal said that
his sister’s ex-husband had tried to stop her from working both during and
after their marriage despite vowing not to oppose her working as a
journalist before their wedding. Mina Mangal’s killing
highlights the increasingly life-threatening risks faced by Afghan women
working outside the home. Most Afghan men in this traditionally
conservative society still hold the view that women need to stay at home and
frown upon those in the workplace. Mangal worked as a presenter for several
Afghan TV channels before becoming cultural adviser for parliament.
In 2018, the Thomson
Reuters Foundation ranked Afghanistan as the second-most dangerous country for
women, nearly 17 years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime. The
Taliban were notorious for their repression of women during their rule from 1996
to 2001; they banned girls’ education, forbade women from working outside the
home, forced them to wear full facial covering and shredded any Western notion
of women’s rights, among other restrictions... read more:
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