Afghan Woman Faces Death By Stoning For Teaching Girls Taekwondo
A 22-year-old Afghan woman has been arrested by Taliban authorities in the western city of Herat after secretly teaching girls taekwondo, prompting fears among activists that she could face execution by stoning.
Khadija Ahmadzada was detained on 10 January after morality police discovered she had been training female students in a concealed courtyard at her home, in defiance of the Taliban’s sweeping ban on women’s participation in sport.
Human rights campaigners say there are growing concerns that Ahmadzada may already have been sentenced to death, although no official confirmation has been made. Her detention has sparked urgent calls from activists to raise international awareness in the hope that global scrutiny could prevent her killing.
British-Afghan activist Shabnam Nasimi said Ahmadzada’s actions represented a quiet act of resistance against the Taliban’s treatment of women. “She refused to accept that being female is a crime,” Nasimi wrote on Instagram.
According to witnesses cited by Nasimi, Taliban officers raided Ahmadzada’s home and detained both her and her father, dragging them outside before taking them into custody. Ahmadzada has reportedly been held for more than a week, during which time her family have had no contact with her.
Nasimi said rumours circulating among those close to Ahmadzada suggest a court may have issued an “extreme death sentence” of stoning for the offence of practising and teaching sport. Stoning is a form of execution in which stones are thrown at a person until they die.
Activists are urging supporters to flood social media with Ahmadzada’s name in an attempt to generate international pressure. “When the international spotlight lands on a regime like this, they hesitate,” Nasimi said. “Not because they grow a conscience, but because they fear consequences, pressure, exposure and intervention.”
Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Afghan women and girls have seen their rights systematically stripped away. Girls have been barred from secondary and higher education, women are required to cover their faces and bodies in public, and are forbidden from looking at men who are not relatives or spouses.
Further restrictions ban women from being seen through windows in their own homes, while singing, speaking loudly in public, or even hearing other women’s voices has been prohibited under the Taliban’s so-called “vice prevention” policies.
Human rights groups say Ahmadzada’s case highlights the growing risks faced by Afghan women who resist the regime’s increasingly harsh restrictions.
EDITOR
Sam Udekwe is a journalist working in the News and Current Affairs department, Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS) Enugu. He is well trained in all genres of journalistic venture.
Mr Sam read Mass Communication, graduating all with Distinction in National Diploma, Higher National Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma at IMT, Enugu and Madonna University, Okija, Anambra state, as well as M.Sc Mass Communication with Second Class(Upper Division) at National Open University of Nigeria.
He is the immediate past NUJ Chairman, Enugu state.
samowailo@gmail.com
