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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Suspected Taliban militants in Afghanistan on Thursday shot dead an Indian
woman whose memoir about marrying an Afghan and life under the Islamist
militia was made into a Bollywood movie, officials said.
The killing of Sushmita Banerjee was the latest in a string of attacks on
prominent women in Afghanistan, adding to fears women's rights in a country
where many are barely allowed outside the house will recede even more after
U.S.-led foreign forces fully withdraw in 2014.
The militants arrived before dawn at Banjerjee's residence in eastern
Paktika province, which lies in Afghanistan's east — a region where the
Taliban are especially influential.
Her husband, Jaanbaz Khan, answered the door, only to be quickly bound and
blindfolded, provincial police chief Gen. Dawlat Khan Zadran told The
Associated Press.
The militants then dragged Banerjee outside, took her to a nearby road and
shot her at least 15 times, Zadran said.
Banerjee, who officials said was in her 40s, was buried Thursday morning, a
relative told AP. She lived in Daygan Sorqala village, and was well-known as
a medical worker in the area, with special training in gynecology, said the
relative, Zafar Khan.
Taliban spokesmen did not answer phone calls seeking comment late Thursday.
Banerjee — who was from Kolkata, India — wrote "A Kabuliwala's Bengali
Wife." It later became the basis for the 2003 film "Escape from Taliban."
The book described how she met Jaanbaz in India and agreed to marry him
despite her parents' disapproval and the fact that he was Muslim while she
was Hindu.
According to summaries of the book online, Banerjee moved to Afghanistan as
Jaanbaz's second wife, only to find that life would become unbearable with
the Taliban increasing their hold over the country
The Taliban militia, which rose to prominence in 1994 and officially ruled
the country from 1996-2001, placed severe restrictions on women.
It forced them to wear all-encompassing burqas, banned them from working and
prohibited girls from attending schools.
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The Islamist rulers' harsh interpretation of their religion meant many women
could not get proper medical care because the only physicians available
were men who in most hospitals were allowed to examine women only if they
were fully clothed.
In an interview posted on India's Rediff news, entertainment and shopping
website, Banerjee described trying to flee Afghanistan multiple times to get
away from the Taliban, and how she was ordered executed as a result of her
attempts. She made it back to Kolkata in August of 1995.
"I still remember the day I stepped on Indian soil for the first time after
I had left," the interview quotes her as saying. "It was raining outside.
People were scurrying for shelter. But I didn't run. I just stood there and
let the rain wash off my pain. I felt if I could bear so much in Afghanistan
, I can surely bear my motherland's rain. I don't know how long I stood
there, but I won't forget that day."
Her book was published in 1997, about nine years after she got married,
according to the interview, conducted around the time of the film's 2003
release but reposted Thursday in light of Banerjee's death. The film starred
actress Manisha Koirala.
The relative who spoke to AP, Zafar Khan, is the father of Jaanbaz's first
wife. He said Banerjee was beloved in the area, was known locally by the
name Sahib Kamal and that many residents were upset that an unarmed woman
had been targeted.
Zafar Khan said Banerjee had converted to Islam, though it was not
immediately clear when. She and Jaanbaz had no children of their own, Khan
said.
"She was a very kind woman. She was very educated — she knew the Internet,"
Zafar Khan said. "Myself, I am very sad. Believe me, I haven't been able to
eat."
Militants have targeted prominent women several times in recent months in
Afghanistan.
Last month, officials confirmed that Fariba Ahmadi Kakar, a lawmaker who
represents Kandahar province in parliament, was kidnapped and was being held
in exchange for four insurgents detained by the government.
Also in August, insurgents ambushed the convoy of a female Afghan senator,
seriously wounding her in the attack and killing her 8-year-old daughter and
a bodyguard.
Senator Rouh Gul Khirzad's husband, son and another daughter were also
wounded in the attack in the Muqur district of Ghazni. |
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