I saw an article today about a television re-enactment of a horrific crime that took place in Afghanistan over a month ago. A “mentally unstable” woman was chastising worshipers who were praying to a shrine (a practice which is of much debate as to whether it is permitted in Islam), and was then (falsely) accused of burning pages of the Quran. What followed next is nothing short of horrifying.

The mentally ill woman, her face covered in blood, rose to her feet and looked out across the mob. She pleaded. But these men meant to kill her.

A kick sent her tumbling backward. In the courtyard of one of Kabul’s most famous shrines, men hurled stones at her and struck her with wooden planks.

When she was dead, they tied her body to a car and drove to the Kabul River. On the garbage-strewn bank, they burned her corpse.

Firstly, let me take issue with calling her a “mentally ill woman”.

A few weeks ago, Farkhunda had told a doctor treating her that she planned to commit suicide, a top police investigator in Kabul, Gen. Mohammad Farid Afzali, said in a phone interview. In recent days she had stopped sleeping, her mother told television reporters.

“Farkhunda had a mental malady, and we have been seeing many mullahs and doctors to seek a cure for her mental illness,” her mother said.

Having suicidal thoughts does not necessarily mean that someone has a mental illness. What is the point of this being highlighted anyway? It’s quite clear to see; the article is essentially trying to discredit this woman. This is absolving, or at the very least, minimising the extent of how horrific and barbaric this was. Whether a person is mentally ill or not, nobody, I repeat nobody, should ever be treated like that.

What I fail to understand is where is the humanity in the vile creatures that inflicted this pain on another human being? How can a person who willingly contributes to taking another person’s life sleep at night? Are they not plagued with images of this poor innocent woman’s face every night?

No. Not at all. In fact, many of the attackers took to social media, posting videos and pictures of their attack and actually boasting about their involvement. She was 27 years old, she had her entire life ahead of her. All of her hopes and dreams were extinguished because of a misunderstanding and a crowd of vile, conscienceless, pathetic excuses for human beings. All of this, in the name of religion? The only religion that would endorse this is Satanism.

It is stories like this that make me start to lose faith in humanity.

From a purely psychological standpoint, how are these men able to justify these actions to themselves? Do they believe that they are doing this in the name of religion, therefore they are doing it for the better? I truly don’t understand human nature enough to grasp how a person could willingly take part in such a heinous crime. I don’t understand how they are able to then go and boast about their involvement in taking the life of another person, even if they truly believed that this person deserved it (which clearly is not the case). What they did was truly sadistic and wrong on so many levels. How are they able to take pride in participating in this?

My.old.man Will.I.Am (and the Black Eyed Peas) said it well:
Yo’, whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness and equality
Instead of spreading love we’re spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity

Where, my friends, is the love?