THE COURAGEOUS YOUNG WOMEN of Kabul
Shaharzad Akbar lies awake at night wondering who will be next. She has every reason to worry. The 34-year-old chair of Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission has lost three staff members in the past 18 months, victims of a wave of assassinations. The unprecedented series of murders have targeted the country’s most prominent journalists, civil society activists and judges. Almost all killed have been women. Shaharzad, a mum to a little boy, understands all too well the dangers her role brings to her and her family. “I tell my son, I am only your mother inside the four walls of our apartment. I cannot take him for a walk or to the playground. I cannot be seen with him in public. I don’t want anyone to know he is my son because I am aware of what they are capable of doing.”
Draped in a marjorelle blue headscarf, the Oxford-educated human rights defender tells me she can’t look 24-year-old Fatima Khalil’s parents in the eyes. The young activist came to work for Shaharzad over a year ago, eager to make a difference. Last summer, a bomb attack killed her and her driver, Jawed Folad, as they weaved through Kabul’s traffic to get to work.
