Gunmen Kill Director of Women’s Affairs in Afghanistan

“Two gunmen on a motorbike killed the provincial director of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs outside her home Monday in apparent retribution for her efforts to help educate women, officials said.Safia Ahmed-jan was slain outside the front gate of her home in this southern Afghan city as she was walking to her office, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the women’s ministry in Kabul.

Aleem Sidique, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said the U.N. was “appalled at this senseless murder.”

“What we need to see in Afghanistan is peace, development and progress,” Sidique said. “We share the sentiment of the majority of Afghan people who are appalled at this killing.” More