Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development Volume 32 Issue 2 Volume 32, Fall 2018, Issue 2 Article 3 Misogyny and Lawlessness in Afghanistan: The Women's Fight for Equal Rights Susan Farooqi, Esq Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/jcred This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. FAROOQI (4).DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 11/29/18 11:39 AM MISOGYNY AND LAWLESSNESS IN AFGHANISTAN: THE WOMEN’S FIGHT FOR EQUAL RIGHTS BY: SUSAN FAROOQI, ESQ.* I. INTRODUCTION The anguished final hours of Farkhunda Malikzada, a 27-year-old student of Islamic studies who was falsely accused of burning a Quran in a mosque, prompted a national protest in Afghanistan.1 Farkhunda, while denying the false accusation, begged and pleaded for her life.2 Her killers showed no mercy as they continued to beat her while others recorded the ordeal and later posted the clips on social media.3 Hundreds of men watched the two-hour ordeal, all without any intervention. Among the mob of men were several police officers.4 Two days before the Afghan New Year, Farkhunda Malikzada promised her mother, Bibi Hajera, that she would help prepare for the festivities when she returned from her Quran reciting class.5 Later that day, Farkhunda was on her way home when she got into an argument about the selling of charms and several other items with Zain-ul-Din, the caretaker at the Shah-e Du Shamshira mosque, located in the heart of Kabul.6 Farkhunda thought of these charms as superstitious and un-Islamic and was trying to make this point to the man, when he began shouting his false accusations: “She burned the Quran!” A mob of young men gathered.7 Farkhunda, while denying that she burned the Quran, was pulled from the mosque by the mob of men.