Taliban Kidnaps Female Member of Afghan Parliament
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(KABUL, Afghanistan) — There are serious concerns that the kidnapping of a female member of Afghanistan’s parliament is a portent of things to come if hard-fought women’s rights are rolled back.
Fariba Ahmadi Kakar was abducted last Saturday by Taliban militants while driving with her children in Kandahar. While the lawmaker’s children were rescued by a joint NATO-Afghan operation, Kakar remains in custody.
Her captors say they will only release her if Afghan authorities free four fellow Taliban members.
It’s feared that militants are stepping up a campaign against women who’ve achieved positions of power, unheard of when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001.
Recently, a high-ranking police woman was shot to death in Helmand province, while female Afghan Sen. Rouh Gul Khirzad and her family were seriously wounded in an ambush last week.
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