Joint statement on the assassination of Sushmita Banerjee and the alarming increase in VAW in Afghanistan

The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), the Violence is Not our Culture Campaign (VNC), and the Women Living under Muslim Laws international solidarity network (WLUML) strongly condemn the killing of Indian writer and activist Sushmita Banerjee outside her home in Paktika Province, Afghanistan. On 4^th September, 2013 Banerjee was beaten and abducted from her home and her body was found the next day riddled with more than 20 bullets. It is reported that she was targeted by Taliban-affiliated militants because of her memoirs about surviving house arrest and a death sentence imposed by the Taliban in 1995, and possibly because she had recently installed an internet connection in her home, which her attackers claimed was intended for spying for India.

To read the full statement download the attached document (pdf.)