Murder of Farkhunda Malikzada

On 19 March 2015, Farkhunda Malikzada, a 27-year-old Afghan woman who had just completed a degree in Islamic studies, was killed by a mob in Kabul, Afghanistan. The incident began after she argued with a local cleric, Zainuddin, who sold amulets outside the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque, where Farkhunda worked as a religious teacher. Zainuddin publicly accused her of burning the Quran, a charge she denied. The accusation drew a large crowd, which dragged her into the street, beat her, and eventually killed her. Police attempted to intervene, including trying to move her to a police station and onto the mosque roof, but she fell into the crowd and was fatally beaten, run over by a car that dragged her body nearly 100 metres, and then set on fire near the Kabul River after being further stoned. Witnesses reported the mob shouted the takbir and anti-American slogans during the killing, accusing her of working with Americans or a foreign embassy.

In the immediate aftermath, public and official reaction in Afghanistan was largely hostile to Farkhunda, with some officials and clerics stating she had desecrated Islam. A police investigation later determined that she had not burned the Quran, prompting public outrage, mass protests in Kabul, and a shift in public opinion in her favor. Her funeral on 22 March, attended by women carrying her coffin, marked a departure from typical funeral customs in the country.

An investigation led to 49 arrests. On 5 May 2015, a Kabul court convicted several defendants: four men were initially sentenced to death, eight others received 16-year prison terms, and eleven police officers were later sentenced to one year in prison for failing to protect her. On 2 July 2015, an appeals court overturned the four death sentences, reducing three to 20 years and one—for a man who had falsified his birth certificate to claim minor status—to 10 years. The police chief and a shrine caretaker were acquitted. A subsequent review of the case, commissioned by President Ashraf Ghani, recommended retrial, and in 2016 an Afghan civil society organization called for greater transparency in the Supreme Court's handling of the case.

The killing was condemned internationally by the United States and the European Union, both of which called for accountability. It drew renewed global attention to violence against women and women's rights in Afghanistan. Later in 2015, the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan sponsored construction of a memorial to Farkhunda in Kabul, and a portion of the road near the murder site was renamed in her honor by the Afghan government.