Farkhunda, a 27-year-old Afghan woman aspiring to be a teacher, was falsely accused of burning the Quran.

Farkhunda, a 27-year-old Afghan woman aspiring to be a teacher, was falsely accused of burning the Quran. 

She was brutally attacked with stones and sticks, dragged, thrown from a roof, run over by a car, and burned to death with gasoline.


Farkhunda Malikzada, commonly referred to as Farkhunda, was a 27-year-old woman who was publicly lynched by a mob in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on 19 March 2015. A large crowd formed in the streets around her claiming that she had burned the Quran, and for that, her accusers announced that she must be sent to Hell right away.


Farkhunda was beaten and killed after allegedly arguing with a charm seller who falsely accused her of burning the Quran. Later police investigations revealed that she had not done so. Her murder led to 49 arrests;  three men received twenty-year prison sentences, another eight men received 16-year sentences, a minor who was actually 20 years old but changed his age on birth certificate after the incident, received a ten-year sentence, and eleven police officers received one-year prison terms for failing to protect her.[4] Her murder and the subsequent protests served to draw attention to women's rights in Afghanistan. A memorial to her has been built in Kabul with support of the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan.



Farkhunda had previously been arguing with the mullah Zainuddin in front of Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque where she worked as a religious teacher, about his practice of selling amulets.  During this argument, Zainuddin reportedly accused her of burning the Quran. She responded.

Hundreds of angry radicals flocked to the shrine upon overhearing the mullah's accusation. Police arrived and attempted to lead Farkhunda to a local precinct building one mile away, but she refused, asking for a female police officer to accompany her.  The mob was able to drag Farkhunda away into the street where they knocked her to the ground and began beating and kicking her.


 More police arrived, firing warning shots into the air and temporarily dispersing the crowd. They moved her into the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque in an attempt to shield her. As the crowd grew in size and rumors that she was working with Americans began circulating, the mob attempted to storm the shrine. Police hoisted her onto the roof of the building in an attempt to rescue her from the crowd, but Farkhunda, struck by stones and planks thrown by the mob, suddenly slipped and fell into the crowd.

The mob dragged Farkhunda into the street and beat and stomped her. She was bludgeoned with sticks and rocks outside the mosque, then placed into the road and run over with a car, dragging her body almost 100 m. Police offered no resistance, and directed traffic around the scene. 

The mob then dragged her body to the nearby bank of the Kabul River, took turns stoning her and set her on fire. Her body was soaked in blood and would not burn, so the crowd ripped off articles of their own clothing to ignite and maintain the fire. The mob shouted the Takbir during the lynching, including after they were certain Farkhunda was dead.
Farkhunda's parents said the killing was instigated by the mullah Farkhunda had been speaking to. According to Tolo News he loudly accused her of burning the Quran "in order to save his job and life. An eyewitness said that the mob was chanting anti-American and anti-democratic slogans while beating Farkhunda. The mob was captured on video accusing her of working with Americans, and of being a French embassy worker

On 22 March, a number of women, dressed in black, carried Farkhunda's coffin from an ambulance to a prayer ground and then to a graveyard in Chaikhana, a northern neighborhood of Kabul. This was a marked departure from tradition, which holds that such funerals are typically only attended by men. At the end of 2015, it was reported that Farkhunda's grave was half-finished

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