Standing Aside in Kabul

Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to produce and direct a Public Service Announcement decrying violence against women here in Afghanistan. The client was a local NGO that provides shelter and skills training to Afghan women that have fled domestic violence. I leapt at the opportunity to work on the project.

That PSA remains the highlight of my short time here Tolo Tv طلوع​. I was immensely proud of the work that my team put into the production and the bravery of the men and women that agreed to participate in the PSA. I couldn’t wait to share it with my friends and family.

… But after what happened here last week, I don’t have the heart to share it. It wouldn’t do any real justice to the life and death issues women face here in Afghanistan.

Instead, heartbreakingly, I am going to share another video that was filmed just last week, before the Islamic New Year here in Afghanistan.

In case you can’t make out what’s happening in the video, that’s a group of men beating to death a 32 year old woman named Farkhunda.

She was the same age as my sister Sara.

The reason for this incredible, mindless mob violence? They thought she burned a copy of the Holy Qu’ran. After they killed her, they set her body on fire and then threw into the Kabul river, like a piece of garbage.

What happened to Farkhunda shook me badly. I have always known that Afghanistan is a dangerous country to both live and work. I have frequently driven by the sights of car bombings and gun battles, sometimes just hours apart. And my sister and father narrowly escaped being caught up in a terrible attack on the Serena hotel that killed scores of people.

There is no denying that Afghanistan is an unpredictable, violent place.

But what made the killing of Farkhunda so horrific, so unimaginable was to realize her killers were not the Taliban, Al-Qaeda or ISIS. They were not diehard religious fanatics ready to strap a suicide vest to themselves and enter Paradise in a blaze of glory.

They were just ordinary, average young Afghan men. The kind of men I see everyday on my drive to work. And they almost gleefully took this woman’s life.

And there weren’t many of them. As you can clearly see in the video, there were scores of men around watching the attack unfold. Any one of these men could have stepped forward and tried to put to a stop to the madness. Instead, they all watched a young women get slowly beaten to death as if they were watching a cricket game. That was probably even more frightening to me than the handful of thugs directly responsible for Farkhunda’s death.

They simply stood aside and watched.

The police that were present at the scene stood aside and watched.

And the mullah of the Shah-e-Do Shamshera Mosque, where the attack took place, stood aside and watched.

How could a killing like this have happened in the heart of Kabul? My route to work takes me past the Shah-e-Do Shamshera Mosque everyday. It is a landmark here in the city; in the mornings it is surrounded by flocks of pigeons, drawn to the bird feed that’s put out for them. And it has been the backdrop for many film shootings here in the city. I will never look at it the same way again. I will never look at the ordinary Afghan men I see in the streets the same way again. I will never trust my safety or wellbeing with them.

I could have passed by the Shah-e-Do Shamshera Mosque on my back home. I could have seen the attack on Farkhunda taking place and I will always wonder about what I might have done. Would I have tried to stop it? And if I had tried to stop it, would I still be here or would I have died trying to save that woman…

… Or would I have done like the rest did – and simply stood aside, and watched…

God bless Farkhunda. Happy Islamic New Year Afghanistan, you still have very long, long way to go.

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Since the attack, President Ghani ordered a full investigation into the killing of Farkhunda. Twenty-six people have been arrested in connection with the killing, including the mullah of the Shah-e-Do Shamshera Mosque and the police officers that were present at the time of the attack.

Farkhunda’s casket was carried through the streets of Kabul by an encourage of women, they made their way through the streets of Kabul surrounded by a group of men that formed a human shield around them in case they were attacked during the procession.

My TV station broke the story first. We contacted her parents first – and across the globe, all major news networks cited our brave journalists as they dug at the truth and shined a light on those responsible for Farkhunda’s death.

The Tolo newsroom’s pool of journalist and producers are without a shadow of a doubt, some of Afghanistan’s greatest heroes.