Sushmita Banerjee, Indian writer who defied the Taliban, killed in Afghanistan

[taming]

via Melville House: http://www.mhpbooks.com/sushmita-ban...n-afghanistan/

From the article:

Banerjee’s death is the latest in a series of violent acts against outspoken women by the Taliban, echoing the attempted murder of Malala Yousufzai in October 2012. Although the Karzai administration initially rolled back many of the restrictions on women’s activities from the Taliban era, the code of conduct issued by the Ulema Council and endorsed by President Karzai in March 2012 included many new limitations on male-female interaction and mandated full hijab, among other restrictions. Women’s rights activists have decried this endorsement as a retrogressive move by the government.

Banerjee may also have been a victim of the Taliban’s efforts to quell freedom of expression, with some reports claiming that her attackers accused her of writing “nasty things” about them. Many authors have become targets of fatwas and bodily violence from radical groups, including Maiwan Halabjee, who fled to Norway following a fatwa and blasphemy indictment in his native Iraq, Farag Foda, an Egyptian human rights activist who was assassinated by extremists, and Malalai Joya, a former member of Afghanistan’s parliament who has survived several assassination attempts.

[Billi]

Thanks for posting this. What a sad story and what a brave woman!

[Istvan diVega]

It's a tragedy, but only one of thousands playing out every day in that medieval hell-hole of a country.

[Rizla]

That lady had a lot of guts speaking out.

[Prestidigitweeze]

It's testament to the influence of Sushmita Banerjee's actions and words that Taliban militants resorted to such vicious violence, shooting her fifteen times simply to silence her.

What crime did she commit, according to them? Refusing to convert to Islam while living in Afghanistan, apparently, then writing a book about it after returning to Calcutta.

[Prestidigitweeze]

We're not supposed to talk about politics in this part of the site. We're just skirting the issue bringing up the Taliban in Afghanistan specifically in terms of Banerjee's death.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

I agree with you, but we're not supposed to talk about politics in this part of the site. We're just skirting the issue bringing up the Taliban in Afghanistan specifically in terms of Banerjee's death.

That's the drawback of prohibiting discussion of religion or politics- when a new item related to the main topic of the board pops up- in this case religious bigots slaughtering someone who criticizes them in print- it becomes difficult to talk about.

I guess you have to sometimes be willing to wiggle a bit if things are directly relevant to the board?

[WT Sharpe]

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Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

We're not supposed to talk about politics in this part of the site. We're just skirting the issue bringing up the Taliban in Afghanistan specifically in terms of Banerjee's death.

Very well stated.

Originally Posted by teh603

That's the drawback of prohibiting discussion of religion or politics- when a new item related to the main topic of the board pops up- in this case religious bigots slaughtering someone who criticizes them in print- it becomes difficult to talk about.

I guess you have to sometimes be willing to wiggle a bit if things are directly relevant to the board?

In truth we've been struggling with this one more than usual because we realize that the issue is one of importance to both readers and authors, and for that reason we've tried so far to allow a little more latitude than normal; but the restrictions against voicing political and/or religious opinions outside of P&R still apply.

[samhy]

This is sad news
Thank you for letting us know Taming, I guess it won't make it to the headlines here so I wouldn't have known without you.

[Dr. Drib]

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