Afghan Woman Beaten to Death (Post 1)
This week I was shocked as I clicked on one of the top stories on CNN's website. I've had previous experience with bad news coming from the Middle East, but very rarely have I read a news article as disheartening as this. This is not to say that evil groups such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State do not anger me as much as this particular story did. However, the story I have chosen portrays just how poorly the Middle East handles sexism.
This is the article on CNN's website that I will be analyzing today:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/23/asia/afghanistan-woman-killed/index.html
Another source I found on BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32056593
(Here we see protesters outraged by the murder of Farkhunda)
Please be warned! The video that accompanies the article on CNN is graphic and disturbing to some.
As I read this article I was overcome with a feeling of injustice. I knew that the Middle East's culture discriminated against women however I never truly heard how poor of a job their laws do at preventing hate crimes against women.
Farkhunda, age 27, who taught the Quran to children was outside a mosque when she noticed a man was selling false tawiz (a form of prayer card worn around the neck to protect from spirits). The man, who felt cornered by her accusation, retaliated by falsely accusing her of burning pages in the Quran. A crowd gathered around them and, because the vender was a man and she was a woman, they automatically agreed with him. The crowd proceeded to beat her to death, then set her on fire, and dump her body into the river.
Following her death, the community has rallied and plans to protest outside Afghanistan's Supreme Court in Kabul. Among citizen arrests, eleven police officers have been suspended for failing to help effectively. Hopefully the community can learn from this horrible tragedy and begin to overturn their deeply rooted misogynistic customs.
This week I was shocked as I clicked on one of the top stories on CNN's website. I've had previous experience with bad news coming from the Middle East, but very rarely have I read a news article as disheartening as this. This is not to say that evil groups such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State do not anger me as much as this particular story did. However, the story I have chosen portrays just how poorly the Middle East handles sexism.
Another source I found on BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32056593
(Here we see protesters outraged by the murder of Farkhunda)
Farkhunda, age 27, who taught the Quran to children was outside a mosque when she noticed a man was selling false tawiz (a form of prayer card worn around the neck to protect from spirits). The man, who felt cornered by her accusation, retaliated by falsely accusing her of burning pages in the Quran. A crowd gathered around them and, because the vender was a man and she was a woman, they automatically agreed with him. The crowd proceeded to beat her to death, then set her on fire, and dump her body into the river.
This is quite an atrocity and it horrifies me that this could so easily happen especially since there were officers present who did not deem it their duty to help her. Sexism is being take too far and that is unacceptable.
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