Taliban Executes Woman in a Sports Stadium

The Taliban militia in Afghanistan shot and killed a woman as she was "cowering beneath a pale blue all-enveloping burqa," yesterday in what they described as the first "public" (the woman was shot in the center of a sports stadium) execution of a woman in Kabul since the Taliban took control of the city three years ago.

The woman had been found guilty of beating her husband to death.

Since seizing control of Kabul in 1996, the Taliban has imposed a strict system of gender apartheid against all women living in areas controlled by the Taliban. The Taliban's edicts, which have been brutally enforced, banish most women from the work force, closed schools to girls and expelled women from universities. Other Taliban policies include beating any woman who is caught in public without a close male relative as chaperone or who fails to adequately cover her skin; stoning to death anyone who is suspected of adultery; and publicly amputating limbs of thieves.


Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan!

Media Resources: AP and Washington Post - November 16, 1999

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