Afghan Woman Burns Husband

In Pul-I-Kumri, Afghanistan, Zahra, an elderly woman, reported that she was raped by her neighbor in her home on Friday. She said it was the most painful and humiliating thing that had ever happened to her. After the event and had been as shaken up as she was, she asked her husband to move her and their family so that her neighbor wouldn’t attack her again, but he refused to. On Sunday afternoon, Zahra lit her husband on fire.

Zahra was said to have stepped back and watch him burn.

“I thought, someone was going to die and it is going to be him or it is going to be me.”

Since the burning incident, she has been held at the women’s shelter while investigators study the case a bit more to sort out the facts.

Najibullah, her husband, was critically injured but said in a brief interview, that she believes she is mentally ill, which is why she attacked him. He could only be interviewed for s brief moment due to his condition.

Unsurprisingly, the women of Afghanistan have quietly supported her, as they feel too many women are being abused with no consequences to the criminal. With the support of these women, it has sparked an interest in the Afghan news media. News reporters are said to have been walking in the hospital and inquiring about “the man who got set on fire by his wife”.

The pro to this entire case however, is that years ago this would have more than likely gone unnoticed and through the illumination of this particular case, it is revealing the treatment of many other Afghan women.

Zahra’s case is one of few that have occurred within the past month in the Baghlan Province alone.

On last month, a 13-year-old girl cut the nose and ears off of a local mullah that they accused of attempting to sexually assault her. And on Monday during the confession of Zahra at the police headquarters, another woman ran in seeking protection from her husband, who pounded her with bricks, not for the first or second time, but for the third time. She is now seeking out divorce.

Evidently, Zahra wasn’t the only one, but she too was holding back information that could help in the case. She reported to the police that had endured years of abuse from her husband. She shared an experience where he tried to burn her to induce a miscarriage. She lifted her clothing, revealing multiple scars.

I can say that I am disappointed in how long it took for officials to realize the severity in abuse that these women receive from their boyfriends, husbands, etc. but what I can say I am happy about, is their realization now; better late than never in cases such as these.

Afghan provinces such as Baghlan, now have female police officers who can comfortably take information from women being abused. There are also female lawyers working in the same provincial division.

I pray that the country continues in this direction, so that women can start to actually feel and be treated like women, as opposed to a punching bag or a sex object.