Taleban kill fighter for women's rights

KABUL - Taleban gunmen killed a leading female activist in Afghanistan outside her home yesterday, in the latest blow against women's rights.

Two men on a motorbike shot dead Sitara Achakzai in the city of Kandahar.

The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack, which officials say took place in broad daylight.

Friends said Achakzai was returning from a provincial council meeting and her assassins were waiting nearby.

"This cold-blooded assassination puts in question the direction that Afghanistan is heading," said Wenny Kusuma, the director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women in Afghanistan. "There is no respect for the rule of law."

This year Achakzai organised a nationwide sit-in of more than 11,000 women in seven provinces.

The women "prayed for peace" to mark International Women's Day.

Yesterday was the first time Achakzai had returned to Kandahar's provincial council building since receiving shrapnel wounds to her face in a Taleban suicide attack that left 13 dead a fortnight ago.

A friend said she went to say goodbye. Frightened for her safety, she was to leave Afghanistan on May 1.

"She had a ticket to leave," said a close friend and colleague in Kandahar, who asked not to be named.

"She was going to take a few months to see whether things get better or worse."

Achakzai was living in Germany until 2004 but decided to return to Afghanistan with her husband, who taught chemistry at Kandahar University.

The Taleban have offered 200,000 Pakistani rupees ($4240) to anyone who murders a member of the provincial council, the head of which is President Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali.

The murder comes just days after Karzai was forced to order a review of new legislation which the UN said legalised rape.

Fury over the law highlighted the desperate state of women's rights in Afghanistan.

- INDEPENDENT