Young Afghan bride killed by in-laws for refusing prostitution

A young Afghan bride was killed by her in-laws this past week for refusing their demand to go into prostitution.

The decapitated body of the newlywed Afghan bride was discovered by her immediate family. Afghan police, after initial investigation, revealed that the woman's in-laws had killed her. Further investigations revealed that the woman was 25-year-old Mahgul, who was murdered by her in-laws because she refused to go into prostitution.

Mahgul belonged to Herat, a region of western Afghanistan where attacks on women have become widespread.

According to reports, Mahgul's body was found decapitated outside her marital home.

On Saturday, four arrests were made in connection with this murder. The police confirmed that Mahgul's father-in-law, mother-in-law, husband and his cousin were arrested. The cousin was arrested later in the day after eyewitnesses reported that they had seen the 18-year-old boy, identified as Najibullah, outside the house at the time of the murder with a bloody knife in his hand. Najibullah later confessed his crime in front of reporters, saying his aunt, Parigul, forced him to kill Mahgul.

“My uncle’s wife told me I should kill this person,” he told reporters, according to a report by msnbc.com. “I couldn’t kill her. She told me, ‘if you can’t kill her, then help me do it.’ She forced me and I helped her.”

Najibullah then described how Parigul held Mahgul's legs and asked Najibullah to behead her because she (Maghul) “does not listen to me [Parigul].”

The Afghan police later discovered that during the four months of her marriage, her in-laws pressurized her into sleeping with other men for the sake of money.

Mahgul's immediate family did not sit quietly over this brutality. Outside a police station in Herat, they joined women's rights activists in protests for delays in charging suspects in similar cases.

Little is being done to bring the criminals to justice. The police do not follow a case through and there are always delays in charging suspects in murder cases involving women.

Due to the international media attention that this case has gotten, it is being hoped that it will be followed through and the criminals will face punishments.