Below is a Reuter’s report of a woman being executed near Kabul, Afghanistan by the Taliban this Sunday. It says she was accused of adultery and that Taliban members were ‘sexually involved’ with her, possibly via rape, and that she was tortured and killed to settle a dispute…
Watching the very disturbing video, I can’t help but think how alone she is in her last moments. She looks behind once and then faces away from the Islamist crowd.
I am taken aback by the fact that she makes no sound and no plea.
Men in the crowd say Allah ordered the execution with smiles on their faces after she is shot countless times in what seems to be an eternity.
At times like this I wonder how the world carries on.
Like W H Auden, I too wish clocks would be stopped and pianos silenced.
And of course so does many a nameless, faceless beloved left behind, maybe her loving parents, children, or the love of her life…
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message [She] Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
[She] was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
(Video Link via Mersedeh Ghaedi)
50 comments
3 pings
Skip to comment form ↓
Goldstein's Pal
July 10, 2012 at 11:13 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
You know, Maryam, that the men who created the communist party ordered a lot of executions, too, don’t you?
kevin
July 10, 2012 at 11:37 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Communism is (was?) just another form of ‘enforced’ religion… much like thisTaliban
Umberto
July 10, 2012 at 10:43 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Yeah, sure, that’s why they were atheists.
Maggie Clark
July 11, 2012 at 4:01 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Umberto,
The Stalinist regime put Stalin as a god-figure before his people. Just as other dictators have absolutely leaned on religiosity for claims to righteous conduct (e.g. Hitler), Soviet Russia never perpetuated heinous crimes against humanity “for atheism”; it did so “for Stalin.” This makes incredibly good sense when your aim is to control people who were historically subservient to the Tsar and the Church; indeed, people who are used to perceiving people in power as imbued with divine authority.
It’s important to remember, too, that people behave very poorly in groups, as study after study shows our inclination to defer to authority figures for moral mandate, against whom we think we can cede personal responsibility for our actions. We see this in iterations of the Milgram Experiment, the Stanford Experiment, the Third Wave constructed by Ron Jones, and all throughout history. This is an effect heightened by religious communities with a strong hierarchical structure, but anyone who utilizes that same structure can equally achieve such dangerous group control.
You might do well to read a bit about Soviet Russia–Solzhenitsyn’s always a good place to start. There are important messages to take away from that horrific period in human history, but the notion that “atheism” brought about this monstrosity is not one of them.
Cheers,
Maggie
Sarah
July 17, 2012 at 12:39 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Hey, Maggie you may want to learn some history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_%281928%E2%80%931941%29
There’s six more links under “See also” which provide more evidence that you are wrong.
Your special pleading for atheism is noted. Not valid though.
Upright Ape
July 17, 2012 at 10:49 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
And how about all the communists that were killed during those years? Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and others? Or evolutionist Nikolai Vavilov?
Stalin was a thug, plain and simple. He killed anyone he considered a threat. Communist or christian, made no difference.
And you know who Stalin’s “hero” was? Ivan the terrible, a devout orthodox christian. Stalin liked him, because he was a mass murdering thug like Stalin himself. Should we blame jesus for acts of ivan the terrible? If not, why blame Marx for what Stalin did?
Maryam Namazie
July 10, 2012 at 11:37 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Oh my goodness me. Clearly you are an Islamist using a false name. Only an Islamist could not even bother to mention a woman being executed in public in such a heart wrenching manner… I think whilst your comments are aimed at ‘exposing’ me (though not much exposing seems to be taking place), you are in fact exposing yourself. Now fuck off – ummawebsite.killapostates.com awaits you with open arms.
Umberto
July 10, 2012 at 10:45 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
You simple minded twit…everyone who rejects your communist affiliations is not an Islamist.
Shah Alam
July 12, 2012 at 3:22 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Dear Sister,
Crime is Crime…One who performs crime is known as criminal. ISLAM IS AGAINST ALL KINDS OF CRIME.. Crime is a non Islamic activity
The Arabic word Islam means ‘surrender ‘to God. Islam is not a new religion brought by Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh). It is the oldest religion. Islam is in existence ce even before the creation of Humans. Islam is the religion of the Sun , the moon, the Earth.etc. Islam is the religion of All prophets from Adam to prophet muhammad (pbuh)
Maryam Namazie
July 13, 2012 at 11:34 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I am not your sister! Islam=crime; get rid of Islam in political power or any religion for that matter and there will be a huge reduction in crime worldwide!
Upright Ape
July 16, 2012 at 4:21 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
It seems you missed all the incitement of violence in the koran, written by Mohammad, piss be upon him?
Oh, and Adam never existed, get a grip.
StevoR
July 10, 2012 at 12:49 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
@Goldstein’s Pal : For adultery or, maybe, for being raped? I doubt that somehow.
Umberto
July 10, 2012 at 10:44 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
How about for being a believer in Christ?
Is that a good reason.
Upright Ape
July 11, 2012 at 12:30 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Depends on where and when. In Cuba faith in Jesus and communism have been getting along pretty well for decades.
StevoR
July 11, 2012 at 7:17 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
No, Umberto, no mere belief or idea is EVER jusification for execution whether people are execute dfor being Christian, Jewish or atheist or communist or anything. There is arguably perhaps a case for execution for the the very worst mass murderers, serial killers and rapists maybe. *Never* for mere “thought crimes” or “voice crimes.” (ie. expressing those thoughts.)
StevoR
July 11, 2012 at 7:47 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
“Allah” has ordered a lot of executions.
“He” ordered this lady, Najiba’s 22 years of oppressed life to end.
“Allah” ordered Daniel Pearl’s throat be slit and his head hacked off on TV,
Decreed death for Margaret Hassan, an Iraqi aid worker only trying to help
But, again, butchered as a message to the world on what Islam is.
“Allah” ordered Taslima Nasrin & Salman Rushdie to die for writing,
Danish cartoonists be massacred for drawing
Editors be murdered for publishing.
Allah has ordered too many deaths to count in too many places and ways,
Wheelchair-bound old men murdered on cruise liners,
Pilgrims of other faiths in airport queues,
Passengers in buses, diners in restaurants
And those at work in skyscrapers, plane-struck by imaginary Allahs deluded men.
Allah is the ultimate crime boss
Unkillable, hidden coward-like in the shadows,
Too dark to reach from which
He’s ever ready to rage and spout jihads and fatwahs and murders
Unable to take responsibility or be captured,
Blown apart by rival mob boss, henchmen traitor or drone
By virtue of non-existence.
“He” isn’t here in Court your honour,
He who was giving orders to the bomb throwers and brutes
Whose total faith and loyalty is rewarded
For emptying their skulls and shattering others lives
By a delusion of endless gluttony and eternally satiated lust
Without basis in reason or sense or wisdom.
Damn this monster Allah!
Damn those who follow this vile figmant!
Damn their cruel certainties to slaughter for what all but they know to be monstrous lies.
Damn them for how they treat other humans,
Damn how they kill and maim and rape and rape and soil the world
with their damnable Jihad-ly excrement.
Allah ordered nothing.
Allah is bad fiction, ugly myth.
They heard him anyway.
Killed despite facts without heart.
These men are to blame for themselves.
And to blame too for their “Allah” imagined supreme
So horrid and rotten and wrong.
PS. Maryam Namazie, feel free to us ethis as best suits you. Hope it helps.
Maryam Namazie
July 11, 2012 at 11:11 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
thanks for this.
Upright Ape
July 10, 2012 at 1:40 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
You know, troll, enemies of communism (Hitler, Franco, Pinochet) ordered a lot of executions. Your morbid hostility against communism brings to mind some of the darkest chapters in human history.
Umberto
July 10, 2012 at 10:52 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
But not nearly as dark as the rule of Communism.
Upright Ape
July 10, 2012 at 11:26 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Yeah try telling that to victims of the holocaust. Hitler went after communists even before Jews.
godzacon
July 10, 2012 at 3:52 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Sickening- as is all muslim belief. Religion does indeed poison everything and islam is the most virulent poison, reducing minds to pulp. As seen here- Goldstein’s Pal.
I’m revolted by the misuse of the term ‘execution’; dictionaries define (this sense of) the word as legally sanctioned killing, so why won’t the media call this what it is-MURDER, premeditated and motiveless. Certainly not in any sense ‘legal’.
What can be done? Education and enlightenment? Hardly, these people live in primitive societies largely devoid of opportunity for the masses, brainwashed from birth that evil is ordered by their god, in the name of peace! And that evil is mainly perpetrated on women, as ordained in all the ‘holy books’ (Apt that an anagrams of The Word are ‘veil’ and ‘vile’).
I fear that eventually there will be a reckoning, when western democracies wake up to the undeniable fact that the True Believers will not compromise; the ‘moderate majority’ won’t object for fear of their lives; and faced with demise of civilization, war is the only option. And IF a muslim state with nuclear weapons is involved, who can say that the ultimate suicide attack would not happen? After all, paradise awaits…
http://vinienco.com- more islamic bestiality
Outthere
July 12, 2012 at 9:51 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
You’re last paragraph made my blood run cold. Frightening to say that your scenario is a very real possibility. I’ve often considered how much of a chance would the rest of the non-muslim world have, when Islam is spreading globally, immigrating in hugh numbers and influencing governments and education due to their expanding communities in Western countries.
The Arab world is going through it’s own Dark Ages that has lasted several thousand years and how do you change a mentality and ideology that will blindly eradicate all life on this planet if Allah dictates it, or more likely the guy who has the nuclear weapons and says Allah dictates… I think your image of the future awaits us all.
jon
July 14, 2012 at 12:02 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
@godzacon:
the vinienco-link you’re posting (incorrectly, I might ad…. please learn to use the internet), you’re affixing it with the line ‘more islamic bestiality’.
please edit it to make it say ‘more islamic bestiality as seen through the eyes of terribly bigoted christian assholes’
Patty
July 15, 2012 at 10:08 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
To all those who use the brutal murder of a women to make a point about ‘communism’ and not even mentioning how tragic her death is, you have clearly shown how much humanity you have in you… It seems you are just scanning the blog entries to see where you can make one of those boring points: ohh look here, somebody laments the killing of another human being, quick, the communists killed people too, so throw it in, hurray we made a point.
What absolute losers you are….really, go and have a good old moan about communists and then after that see if you can find any kind of human feeling still within you, but you are probably too busy scoring points….
Fernando
July 10, 2012 at 11:21 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
This story is just too distressing. Every now and then you hear of stories that give you hope
that humans can do so much positive things and help each other in times of crisis – then you get
stories like this that just cut your heart out and leave you bewildered at the inhumanity of some bastard arseholes !
StevoR
July 10, 2012 at 12:58 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Harrowing video. Horrific story. What sick, evil swine the Taliban are.
Point blank range and her murderer still missed with his first two shots.
She made no plea, no sound.
Perhaps because she knew it would do no good.
Perhaps she just wanted her pain and horror and ordeal to end.
Who knows?
The men who cheered and her public unpunished murderer, they and their warped death cult are a disgrace to the human species.
Not her. She was alone in the cheering crowd the only one there with dignity and the only one there who shouldn’t be utterly ashamed of their conduct.
Ironic that really.
Maryam Namazie
July 10, 2012 at 1:00 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Yes true.
McC2lhu iz not nu.
July 10, 2012 at 1:50 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Maryam, thank you for posting the Auden poem. When I read the story in the news I was sickened and disgusted. But reading those words reminded me of the feelings family and friends will be having at the truly tragic murder of their loved one. You made me cry. I wish you could make everyone cry at the realization of what has been done in the name of a grotesque and perverse fictional friend.
Maryam Namazie
July 10, 2012 at 2:16 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I was trying to think how I could humanise her and Islamism’s victims because we do often forget that whilst they are so many, there are each individuals who have many a loved one.
Mike
July 10, 2012 at 4:28 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
She was the only “Human” there. Every other member of the crowd was an empty husk where a human once lived.
Humanist75
July 10, 2012 at 3:38 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
The silence of the moderate Muslim majority is deafening. Where are the outraged Imams in the West? Why can’t I hear the voices of the countless Sheikhs whose corrupt and repressive regimes are propped up by Western dollars denouncing this abhorrent act?
I’ll tell you why……
Schenck
July 10, 2012 at 4:00 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
“I’ll tell you why”
Why? Are you suggesting that all muslims agree with this? That’s a pretty stupid suggestion, the Taliban are clearly extremists within the religion; I didn’t see catholics condem baptist abortion-clinic bombers. And if all muslims felt like this, well, there’s a billion of them, we’d've had multiple 911 type attacks since then, at the very least, or have someone everyday running through our major cities on killing sprees. We don’t because the vast majority of muslims don’t support this shit.
Daniel Brady
July 10, 2012 at 4:36 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
You don’t have to fly a plane into a building or blow buses up to support this shit! A village of men stood they cheered and chanted. They didn’t all pull the trigger but each of those 150 men are responsible for her murder. Each of them supported this shit!
Humanist75
July 10, 2012 at 4:40 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
I’m not suggesting that all Muslims are prepared to murder innocent people in the name of their religion.
I am suggesting that more moderate Muslims should speak out against such atrocities, if they believe that such actions are contrary to the teachings of the Qu’ran.
Silence could be seen to imply tacit agreement.
Mike de Fleuriot
July 10, 2012 at 5:20 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
No, in this case, if you do not stand up in a mosque during Friday prayers, and denounce this, you are part of the problem, you are accepting the restrictions Islam places on you and you are not a decent human being.
If a book club I belong to allows racist talk, I will denounce them and try to get to them change their point of view, or failing that leave and work from the outside against them. Anyone who stays in Islam knowing what some Muslims have done in the name of Allah and Islam, are part of the problem, and cowards as well.
You lot do not deserve any respect from the rest of us because of this attitude of yours.
M. A. Melby
July 16, 2012 at 11:58 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
No, of course the majority of Muslims do not support this and it is not fair to say that they are always silent. It’s not like they get air-time anywhere out of Dearborn – I say that in all seriousness.
However, we shouldn’t be excusing any lack of condemnation with another lack of condemnation.
I absolutely wish that more Christians in the U.S. would speak out against the charlatans and the hate-mongers here.
Maryam Namazie
July 11, 2012 at 10:37 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
The silence of a majority is deafening not just Muslims but at least they have a better excuse than everyone else. After all many of those silent are not living under the thumb of Islamism in Islamic communities where any dissent and transgression met with very real threats.
godzacon
July 10, 2012 at 3:58 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
moderate Muslim
oxymoron time again
Maryam Namazie
July 11, 2012 at 10:36 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Nonesense – you are mixing Muslims with Islamist. Don’t blame all Muslims for political Islam as we won’t blame all Americans for the bombing of Iraq. try and see the difference between regular people and political power. Otherwise you won’t see the distinction between oppressor and the oppressed. Najiba may have also been a Muslim as are the Taliban who killed her.
keansimmons
July 10, 2012 at 5:26 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
This horrible, cowardly murder is a real example of misogyny, in contrast to the ludicrous alleged misogyny that FtB shamelessly touts as examples lately.
All of the “men” standing around watching are examples of how Islam (and most religions) engender misogyny in it’s adherents. Do you know what her name was Maryam?
Daniel Brady
July 10, 2012 at 6:24 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Najiba, she was 22.
M. A. Melby
July 17, 2012 at 12:02 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Because a glass of water is not water if an ocean exists?
?
Don Quijote
July 10, 2012 at 6:42 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
When I was living in London, I knew and worked alondside people from Pakistan, Iran and Egypt. In private they would tell me how much they hated this sort of thing being done in the name of Islam. In their communities and mosques however, they were silent. Why? The answer is easy, fear.
Mike de Fleuriot
July 10, 2012 at 7:22 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Sorry Don, not buying that. Taqiyya, Islamic Principle of Lying for the Sake of Allah allows them to say things that gets them out of being made responsible for these actions.
They know supporting these acts in front of you, means you will not want to do business with them, so they have this facility where they can tell untruths to get them out of the shared blame, which you as a decent human are bound to accept.
Do we really want such cowards and or liars on our side? Who knows when they will turn back to Islam against us?
Don Quijote
July 10, 2012 at 8:34 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Yes Mike, I accept that. What I was trying to say in my inept English was something like this. Even if I had been there, would I have had the courage to wrest that weapon from that murderer’s hand? Hand on heart, I don’t think I would have. Perhaps my friends in London did not face such a drastic outcome but they would have faced problems for themselves and their families.
I think Islam is a religion driven by fear and that is why I have so much respect for people like Maryam and the Council for Ex-Muslims.
Upright Ape
July 10, 2012 at 7:55 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Humans have an uncanny ability to deceive themselves. They will be telling themselves there is no way Islam would condone this kind of behavior. When faced with evidence they simply look the other way. They have learned their whole lives that there is nothing wrong with Islam, rather the way people practice it. Islam for them is a matter of identity and they cannot renounce it, like a woman trapped in an abusive relationship.
Outthere
July 12, 2012 at 10:05 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
You just described all religions.
Don Quijote
July 10, 2012 at 8:39 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Forgot to mention Taslima Nasreen as weel.
StevoR
July 11, 2012 at 8:08 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Wrote this stream of consciousness poem just now inspired by your title here :
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2012/07/10/allah-ordered-the-execution/#comment-32400
The formatting was accidentally changed by it turning up as a reply instead of separate comment but I actually kind of like how its turned out there.
If that’s any help for you, feel free to use that as best suits you and make whatever changes to it you think work best.
StevoR
July 11, 2012 at 8:09 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
^ @ Maryam Namazie
Women in World News 7.10.12
July 10, 2012 at 5:18 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
[...] Allah ordered the execution[Video]: July 10, 2012, Maryam Namazie for Free Thought Blogs - Sunday, July 8, 2012, members of the Taliban executed a woman right outside of Kabul, because she purportedly committed adultery with one or more members of the Taliban. In what way did she “commit” adultery? Maybe she was raped, maybe romantically. To these men, the “how” was irrelevant. She was irrelevant, and her execution was simply a means of “settling” a dispute among them. Fawzia, Kufi, a female member of the Afghan Parliament who is considering running for President in the 2014 Afghan elections, knows something about extreme gender discrimination/execution. She was condemned to die at birth for being a girl, and is now a champion of women’s rights in Afghanistan. She not only is a lawmaker, but also an advocate of girls’ education. She speaks out against the incident in the accompanying video. [read more...] [...]
Allah ordered the execution | The Atheist
July 12, 2012 at 1:54 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
[...] http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2012/07/10/allah-ordered-the-execution/ [...]
The struggle continues | Maryam Namazie
July 13, 2012 at 11:25 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
[...] On 11 July, the International Day against Stoning, brave women and men (including a 16 year old who had acid thrown on her face) marched to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Kabul to denounce the brutal execution of Najiba, a young woman, by the Taliban four days ago. [...]