Prominent Afghan Journalist Assassinated

Prominent Afghan journalist Mina Mangal was murdered outside her home in Kabul on the morning of May 11, days after she had reported that she had received death threats.

Mangal, who had recently become a cultural advisor to the Afghan parliament, was the host of literary programs on the Lamar, Ariana and Shamshad TV networks and a well-known public figure. She was buried in the capital’s Shohada-ye Saleheen (Righteous Martyrs) cemetery.

Mangal was a passionate advocate for women’s rights and education and regularly spoke out on social media about Afghanistan’s armed forces and initiatives for peace in her war-torn country. 

The journalist was waiting outside her home in the Kabul neighborhood of Karte Naw for a car to take her to work when, at 7:20am, she was shot dead by two armed assailants on a motorcycle. According to nearby shopkeepers, the assassins first fired a few shots in the air to drive people away and then shot the journalist twice in the chest before speeding away.  

Mangal’s family had said goodbye to her as she left for work just minutes before she was murdered. Her parents rushed her to the hospital but she was pronounced dead on arrival. Kabul police announced that they had opened an investigation. 

Mangal’s mother Aniseh told IranWire that a week earlier her daughter had received threats from her ex-husband. She said that although her daughter had reported the threats to Precinct 12 of the Kabul police department, no action had been taken to protect her. “When I went to the precinct and said that my daughter’s ex-husband had threatened to kill her they paid no attention and said they had no time for it,” she said.

“Two years ago her husband and his brother beat her so badly that she was covered in blood,” Mangal’s mother said.“Then they tied her hands and her feet and abducted her, [taking her] to the village of Mirzaki in Paktia." Initially the family did not know who had kidnapped her. "We tried hard to find her until we learned that she had been abducted by her husband’s family,” her mother said. They later released her after holding her captive for days. 

Mangal's mother Aniseh also said her daughter received death threats regularly, including on Facebook and over the phone, and that she had stated on Facebook that she had received threats just a few days before her murder. She said a week before her murder, associates of Mina Mangal’s ex-husband had threatened to kill her and that her son had urged the family to move to another house to protect his sister, but that Mangal had refused and insisted she was not frightened by the threats. 

The TV presenters’ parents said they hold her ex-husband responsible for her murder, and her father, Taleb Jan, has called for his arrest. “Her husband always beat my daughter to a pulp,” he said. “And now we believe she has been murdered by her husband. We have no enemies.” He added that he did not believe the Taliban had any involvement in the murder, although the Taliban has repeatedly targeted journalists. 

Watch on youtube

Threats Against the Whole Family

Mina Mangal’s father Taleb Jan added that his daughter’s ex-husband and his brothers had warned the family not to talk to the media or the police about the abduction, and threatened to hurt them if they did. “We will not let you live in peace if you tell the media about it or complain to the police,” they reportedly told the family.

The family is demanding justice for their daughter and say they are now worried about their own safety. If Kabul police do not arrest the ex-husband, they say, he could now carry out his threats against the parents, their six daughters and their son. 

In addition to launching an investigation into the murder, police in Kabul said they would question Mangal’s ex-husband.

Bloodiest Year for Afghan Journalists

According to Nai, an NGO that advocates freedom of the media in Afghanistan, 2018 was the bloodiest year on record for Afghan journalists. Twenty media workers were killed and there were reports of more than 200 incidents of violence against them. The Taliban and other unidentified armed assailants have been held responsible for many of the deaths. 

Afghanistan is a dangerous place for women too, and not just female journalists. “Over the past two decades of war in Afghanistan there have been many attacks on and assassinations of women in public positions, including policewomen and politicians, educators, students and journalists,” reported the Guardian. “Some have been targeted by insurgents who object to women having a role in public life, while others have been attacked by conservative relatives or members of their own community.” The article also said that women were particularly vulnerable at the moment, not least because of US-led attempts to broker peace with the Taliban, which have not taken into account the needs of women and the long fight for them to reassert their rights following Taliban rule at the beginning of the century, when women were banned from education, severely limited in the workplace, and forced to wear the burqa.

“The fight for women’s rights was often presented as a major driver of western military intervention, but appears to have been largely sidelined as the US tries to wrap up its longest-ever war,” writes Emma Graham-Harrison. “Although the Taliban has paid lip service to women’s rights at international meetings, in the parts of the country it controls there are harsh restrictions including a de-facto ban on secondary education for girls.”