Wave of Violent Attacks Against Women in Western Afghanistan

Area has highest rate of self-immolation

HERAT, Afghanistan—A disturbing spate of violent attacks against women has gripped western Afghanistan, where over a dozen women have been killed this year. 

In the latest incident, an 18-year-old identified only as Najibullah was arrested on October 13 in connection with the gruesome torture and beheading two days earlier of a woman in the western city of Herat, near the border with Iran. Mahgul, a 25-year-old newlywed, was found dead outside her home by her family, who then carried her mutilated body to the local Department for Women's Affairs to raise awareness of her killing.