Women’s rights activist and economics lecturer Frozan Safi shot dead in Afghanistan

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, activists and journalists have been living in fear. Activists have said that they are being hunted down by the Taliban. In a tragic incident, a 29 year old activist, Frozan Safi has been shot and killed in northern Afghanistan. She worked as an economics lecturer.

This appears to be the first known death of a women’s rights defender since the Taliban took control.

The Guardian newspaper quoted a doctor named Meraj Faroqi as saying that the Taliban security forces brought the bodies of two unidentified women who had been shot dead.

The bodies were alongside those of two men in a house in Mazar-i-Sharif. Zabihullah Noorani, Taliban’s director for information and cultural affairs in Balkh province, suggested that this could have been the result of a “personal feud”. He further told that the police were investigating the case.

Frozan's body was identified in a morgue in Mazar-i-Sharif after she went missing on October 20.

“We recognised her by her clothes. Bullets had destroyed her face,” said Safi’s sister, Rita.

It has been revealed that Frozan received a call from an anonymous number. She was asked to gather proof of her work as a rights defender and leave for a safer place. The activist believed that her request for asylum in Germany was under way. Therefore, she stuffed some documents, including her university diploma, and left home, her sister told. Rita said that they are completely unaware of who killed her.

Abdul Rahman Safi, her father, said that Frozan’s body had been found in a pit. It was registered by hospital workers as unknown.

Recently, the Human Rights Watch said that the rules formulated by the Taliban have been prohibiting most women from operating as aid workers in the country. This is further contributing into a humanitarian disaster.

Women have been holding nationwide protests regularly against the Taliban. They demand that their rights should be restored and protected.

(With inputs from agencies)