http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/07/asia/07afghan-web.php
Gunmen kill female journalist in Northern Afghanistan By Abdul Waheed Wafa Published: June 6, 2007 KABUL, Afghanistan: An Afghan journalist was shot dead by unknown gunmen in her home north of Kabul on Tuesday night as she slept beside her 10-month-old baby, Afghan officials said Wednesday. The journalist, Zakia Zaki, 38, was the director of a private local radio station in Jabal-us-Siraj, an hour's drive north of the capital, Kabul. She was shot seven times, said Abdul Jabar Taqwa, the governor of Parwan Province. The baby survived. Zaki, the mother of six children, had been receiving threats for the last few months demanding that she take the station off the air, Taqwa said. The nature of the threats was unclear, but she had been involved in women's rights advocacy and political activity. Zaki was killed just six days after a reporter and anchorwoman on a private television station in Kabul was shot and killed in her house. When the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan in 2001, barring women from education and work outside their houses, Zaki's was the only woman's voice that could be heard near Kabul, on the station Radio-Solh, or Peace Radio. France has provided funds for the station, which operated in an area that had remained under the control of the Northern Alliance during Taliban rule. After the fall of the Taliban Zaki became the director of the radio station and had remained in that role. The governor said that it was too early to say who was behind the killing but that the police were investigating. Zaki's colleagues blamed armed groups, remnants from the wartime factions and militias, many of whom are religious conservatives opposed to women taking a prominent public role in Afghanistan. Foreign countries and groups involved with Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001 have helped promote employment and education opportunities for women. But the country as a whole remains conservative on cultural and religions matters. The television reporter, Shekiba Sanga Amaaj, 22, was killed in her home after she returned from work. The motivation for the killing is not known, her father, Mohammad Rabi Amaaj, said in an interview. "I can see my daughter everywhere in this house," Amaaj said, his eyes tearing. Amaaj, an engineer, said he and the family were still receiving leaflets with threats. He said that in 2005, after he returned to Afghanistan after 16 years of exile in Pakistan, there was an explosion outside his house. He has six children, and Amaaj was his second-oldest daughter. She was 4 when the family left the country, and she finished high school in Kabul when they returned. "My daughter herself never received any threat directly," he said, but a few months ago his third daughter, Frishta, escaped from a kidnapping attempt that the family later found was committed by his nephew. The nephew and his father were arrested and are still in detention, he said. "I think it was because they wanted to do this for money," he said. The Afghan police arrested two other suspects after Amaaj was killed, and Amaaj said they also had ties to the nephew. News agencies suggested that the men might have been trying to force Amaaj into marriage. Rahimullah Samander, the leader of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association, attended the funeral for Zaki and said she was the third Afghan journalist to be killed this year. He added that there were many other cases of threats, mistreatment and obstacles presented to Afghan journalists, both by the Taliban and by people who hold power in the government. He said that Zaki told him recently that she was receiving telephone calls threatening her life. Ahmad Hanavesh, the leader of the association's chapter in the north, said, "We are really concerned about the increasing violence against journalists in this region." He said that in addition to being a journalist, Zaki was an advocate for women's rights and the headmistress of a high school for girls. She was a representative from Parwan Province to the national tribal assemblies that laid the foundations for the post-Taliban era and government.
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