TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – CRISTINA ODONE: A 20-year-old Afghan girl has been beheaded, by her in-laws, for refusing to become a prostitute. Her mother-in-law and and a hired man cut off Mah Gul's head in the province of Herat last week.
The horrific case has confirmed the plight of women and girls in Taliban-strongholds such as Herat: it comes in the wake of the Taliban's attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who campaigned for girls' education in Pakistan.
Surely, enough is enough? How many women martyrs do Muslim leaders need before they speak out against such misogyny?
Human Rights Watch, in its report on Afghanistan, does not mince its words: "The situation for women’s rights is particularly bad, with threats and attacks by insurgents on women leaders, schoolgirls, and girls’ schools, and police arrests of women for 'moral crimes' such as running away from forced marriage or domestic violence." That report was published two years ago, but the situation has not improved in the intervening years: so far this year, 100 attacks on girls and women have been reported. » | Cristina Odone | Thursday, October 18, 2012
