Farkhunda, victim of a society of oppressors and the oppressed

KABUL (SW): On 19 March 2015 a tragic and unprecedented incident took place. Farkhunda’s harrowing death was a tragedy to the true meaning of the word. She was killed in public and among collective conscience.

With the exception of a few Civil Order Police forces, some people acted to further incite the tragedy, and some stood just as on-lookers to witness her death taking place before their very eyes.

The hectic act of killing her suggested that such torturous death happened without the slightest guilt-ridden feeling on the side of the perpetrators.

The question however, is that what was the logic behind such punishment in public? Guilt-ridden collective conscience or something else? What would the attackers want to prove by inflicting pain? Reveling in her pain and ordeal or satiating their ‘holy anger’? Why was she killed? Who could be responsible for her death? Where the main anger of the attackers emanated from? One answer to these questions relate to the context in which the death occurred and it is the ordinary Afghan’s life.

Farkhunda’s lynching happened in a setting where two main sources are prevailed, religion and tradition. The Afghan’s life is the underlying factors of her tragic death.

Afghan Society

Unlike developed and modern societies that enjoy the rule of law, Afghan society is that of a traditional nature where traditions are more sacred than the laws.

In other words, tradition is the crucial element of the Afghan society. It goes without saying that an Afghan’s world is greatly influenced by the traditions.

It has always been the tradition, which has given legitimacy to certain behaviors. The tradition here is of a complicated nature in its essence, and the religious teachings are considered as the main elements of such structure.

Religious centers, mosques, clerics, religious political leaders all shape the traditional Afghan society.

Afghans; oppressors and oppressed

Muslims have always defended the religion by this very conscience. Without discussing religious conscience, it would not be a mistake to say that the act of killing Farkhunda was rooted in this conscience.

She wouldn’t have been killed if she was not accused of burning a holy Quran.

The perpetrators thought that they were allowed to kill her since she allegedly ‘burned’ their religious book and therefore felt so justified.

It would be wrong to separate the tragic death of Farkhunda from the sources of the prevailing ideology. Farkhunda was killed by angry mob, and if we consider this in the historical context, we realize that her death was deeply rooted in the ideology.

Afghan society is full of contradictions. It has been a source of violence as well as a victim of the violence.

The decades of wars are glaring examples of political contradictions, which emerged out of the Afghan society that dates back to 1990s in-fight among the Mujaheddin.

Farkhunda’s case showed that how a Muslim girl is lynched by yet other Muslims.

In Farkhunda’s death, the idea of murder and act of murder has not been coincidence so relating her death to foreign intelligence is not accurate.

Blaming “sick society” or “poor culture” for such tragedy only masks the reality behind it. The idea is that Afghan society bears a paradoxical essence. This paradox, which carries both the killer and the victim is frightening.

This contradiction can help us further understand the Afghan society as this society in one hand killed Farkhunda and on the other hand houses her killers

Farkhunda was killed by mob who was all born and raised in such society, and their world is not out of Afghan traditions and religious conscience.

ENDS