On Saturday night, unknown gunmen killed the 29 year old former Afghan lawmaker, Mursal Nabizada, and her bodyguard and wounded her brother at her home in Kabul.
Nabizada had recently criticised the Taliban over its restrictions on women and girls. Her family has said her murder couldn’t be due to personal feuds. Her mother told Tolo News that “we heard the sound of gunfire and rushed downstairs to find my daughter and her bodyguard dead and her brother wounded.”
Nabizada’s murder provoked strong reactions, particularly from her fellow former MPs and politicians.
Mahdi Rakish, a former MP, said on Twitter, that Nabizada’s murder demonstrated that “under the Taliban, terrorism, extremism and instability have increased. No one is safe. Every day, we see the mysterious targeted killings of public figure, including politicians and intellectuals.”
The Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan, Karen Decker, called her murder a “tragic loss.”
Chargé d’Affaires of Afghanistan Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Naseer Ahmad Faiq, said tweeted that “No one is safe and accountable in our homeland.”
Hannah Neumann, a member of the European Parliament, also reacted to the Afghan female MP’s death in Kabul. “I am sad and angry and want the world to know! She was killed in darkness, but the #Taleban build their system of Gender Apartheid in full daylight.”
Zarifa Ghafari, a former Afghan female mayor, questioned the Taliban leaders’ general amnesty saying that “tens of women have been killed, tortured, humiliated, and disappeared” after that amnesty was announced. “Is it the [Taliban’s] Emir (Hibatullah Akhundzadah) who is behind the murder of Mursal Nabizadah and suppression of all Afghan women or those who sends bags of dollars?”
“Mursal Nabizada’s death indicates that no one’s life is safe in Kabul,” said Rahmatullah Andar, former spokesperson for Afghanistan’s National Security Council.
No one has claimed responsibility and the Taliban’s Kabul police spokesperson, Khalil Zadran, said the group had launched an investigation.
