The Taliban Acid Attack On Schoolgirls

A week ago in a Southern Afghanistan Province, some girls and their teachers had their faces sprayed with acid.

Here is the link to the article.

The men, linked to the Taliban, were mounted on motor cycles and sprayed the acid from water pistols in streams onto the faces of the girls and their teachers. Most of the girls were wearing full Burkas so that offered some protection but being acid, then even material would offer very little protection.

A week later, ten men have been arrested for the offence and some have confessed to their involvement. Afghan President, Hamid Karzai has called for the men to publically executed, and if that is the way the law works in Afghanistan, then so be it. In the West they would probably find a good lawyer who might find a way to get them off a lot more lightly, but the legal system from Country to Country is the sole province of that Country.

However, the thing that made me think about it was that the men have admitted that they were ‘hired’ by the Taliban to commit this heinous crime, not just against women, but against mankind in general. They were paid $2000 each to commit this act, and now, if the Country gets it right, they will pay with their lives.

Now, here we have the Taliban. When they came to power before the West stepped in and tried to bring some semblance of democracy to Afghanistan, they introduced what we consider worse than draconian measures in that Country, in the name of the religion they follow. One of those draconian measures was that they forbade girls from any schooling whatsoever.

When the Taliban was thrown out, the fledgling Democracy reinstated education for girls, but most parents are still so scared of that awful past that they still will not send their female children to any schools and still keep them at home.

I am not a psychologist, but I want to make some observations about the psychology of these attacks.

Note that the men were hired and paid by the Taliban to carry out these attacks. That leads me to believe that the men who hired them actually knew that this was a wrong thing to do. Those who did the hiring would not just be the average guy in the street, but would those higher up the heirarchical ladder in that religious order, or whatever they might call it. They then proceed to tell these men that they are doing good work, and this will count towards their martyrdom. The same might apply for those who are persuaded to strap bombs to themselves and to blow theselves up in public places. Those upper echelons persuade their underlings that this will lead to their martyrdom, and fly them off to their heaven. It is their job as higher ups to persaude these nobodies to do things like this.

Now, if those higher ups consider this is the step to martyrdom and their heaven, then why don’t they do it themselves then?

The same applies for that terrible bombing in Bali and how three of the Bombers were finally executed a couple of weeks back. Their religious leader stood up for them all the way to the firing squad. Why wasn’t he with them when they set off the bombs if this was a short cut to heaven and glory.

No!

These people know it is wrong, legally, morally, and in terms of their religion. Otherwise there would be no religious leaders of their faith around. They’d be falling all over themselves to strap bombs to their own bodies, not exhorting their mindless uneducated followers to do their dirty work for them, and then damn well paying them to do it.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for these men who sprayed acid in the face of innocent girls just wanting to get an education. If the law of their new Democratic Country calls for their execution, then so be it. I have even less sympathy and no respect whatsoever for the nameless faceless men who PAID them to do this, all the time shaking their heads and saying, ‘No, it wasn’t me.’ If they are so proud of their martyrs flying off to their version of heaven then they should be proud to come out and say , ‘Yes, it was me. I gave those orders.’ Then they could fly off to their heaven too.

No, they skulk in the shadows looking for more people to pay a pittance to do their dirty work for them, all the while denying it was them, a silent admission in itself.

These were young girls at school and their teachers, not enemy soldiers with guns looking to kill you.

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Tagged: Taliban Crime

Posted in: Afghanistan, Taliban