by B. R. GOWANI
Afghan woman Farkhunda, accused of burning pages of Qur’an, was murdered by a mob in Kabul in the presence of police. PHOTO/Jamila Hanan tweeter/The New York Times
Anyone (whether a Muslim or a non-Muslim and whether a local or a foreigner) living in or visiting a Muslim country should beware of the powerful trinity: Allah (God), Muhammad (Prophet), and Qur’an (scripture). However, even if you’re extra careful, there is no guarantee that you might not be targeted on false charge/s. In the hands of religious zealots, opportunists, and ignorant masses, this trinity has been turned into a license to kill. The gross abuse of this trinity in Muslim countries hamper progressive forces, arrest development of any kind of secular society, and assigns a back seat to human life.
Farkhunda.
PHOTO/Women Living Under Muslim Laws
Farkhunda, a 27 year-old Afghan religious teacher who taught Qur’an, accused a mullah (religious cleric) at Shah-e-Do Shamshera shrine in Kabul of distributing false tawiz. (Tawiz is a pendant containing piece/s of paper/s with Quranic writing and are worn by some Muslims around the wrist, neck, or forearm to protect themselves from evil forces.)
But the mullah counteraccused Farkhunda of burning pages of Qur’an. What followed has for sometime now become a normal routine thing in Muslim countries: Farkhunda was murdered. She was mercilessly beaten, thrown off the bridge, run over by a car, set on fire, and dumped into the Kabul River.
PHOTO/Activist 1
PHOTO/The Muslim Issue
It’s rare. But sometimes, it does happen. And that’s what occurred in Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul. Women carried the coffin, a very unusual and a very defiant act in the Muslim world. In the words of Women Living Under Muslim Laws networker:
“For the first time in Afghanistan we stood tall to say that no man will touch her burnt body’s coffin. It was the women whom Farkhunda never met that took her body out of the ambulance, back there, to the prayer place and, joined by another 20-25 additional women, to her grave…”
Women’s rights activists carry the coffin of Farkhunda, an Afghan woman who was beaten to death and set on fire Thursday, during her burial ceremony in Kabul on Sunday. PHOTO/Reuters/The Japan Times
The chants heard at the cemetery were:
“Maa hama Farkhunda yem.” “We are all Farkhunda.”
“Maa edalat mikhohim!” “We want justice!”
PHOTO/Women Living Under Muslim Laws
General Mohammad Zahir, an official investigator, told reporters at her funeral,
“Last night I went through all documents and evidence once again, but I couldn’t find any evidence to say Farkhunda burnt the Holy Koran.” “Farkhunda was totally innocent.”
Isn’t it sad to hear such a rubbish. Does it mean that Farkhunda’s savage murder would have been justified if she had burnt Qur’an’s pages? It would have been great to hear investigator say Farkhunda’s murder cannot be justified in any manner.
Farkhunda’s sad and tragic death could bring a couple of changes in some of the Muslim countries: women may become regular part of the funeral rituals; and politicians and leaders may take more serious actions against such barbaric acts.
(In Pakistan, no imam was willing to offer funeral prayers for Punjab Governor Salman Taseer funeral. In January 2011, he was murdered by his bodyguard for recommending changes in the blasphemy laws and the defense of a Christian woman named Aasia Bibi.)
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com