She was completely innocent.
I'm in India again on another humanitarian mission. I adore India. The people, the culture, the food. But as always, it's not just a simple tourist visit where I get to take selfies at the Taj Mahal or attend Yoga retreats. My life and travel is not in the vein of Eat Pray Love. Although I do all of these things too.
I am an advocate for a select group of refugees called Interpreters. More accurately, Abandoned Interpreters. That in itself is a series of blogs which would last months, maybe years.
This blog is a tribute to my sister in law, the sister of one of the abandoned interpreters, my husband. She was killed this week. She was seventeen years old. She was murdered by ISIS, in Afghanistan.
People from countries which are invaded by NATO, countries where terrorism is a daily threat, often find themselves in dire straights, the likes of which almost all westerners, through sheer luck of where they were born, will never find themselves in. People, innocent people, who wish only to live out their destiny in the best way they can in war torn countries, quickly find themselves without food or housing, as a normal part of living in a country being devastated before their eyes. Often the only way of getting money is to work for the invaders. This is a long and complicated issue and I will reserve my judgement, about this aspect, for later.
When it comes to those who are able to get a job interpreting for the foreign troops, the situation soon becomes more perilous than it is for anyone else. They are seen, by those we call enemies of the west, as enemies and traitors. When I say enemies of the west, I mean terrorist organisations, based in the Middle East. The Interpreters are placed high on hit lists by these people. In the field to take out an interpreter is to weaken the whole platoon, and therefore the mission so, ultimately, the invasion. Once the invasion has "succeeded", and the enemy has been suppressed, the danger for the "terps" (army slang for interpreters) doesn't end. There are always left over splintered pockets of enemy militants. In Afghanistan there was many. The Taliban continued to fight and still do, gaining and losing strength over the past 14 years. And they have continued to hunt the terps since. Thousands of these terps have simply been abandoned by NATO countries. Hundreds have been killed. The situation is even more dire as ISIS / Daesh have also taken parts of Afghanistan, overtly and more often, covertly, and certain factions of the Taliban have joined them, while other Taliban factions consider ISIS as enemies. This is all orchestrated by those who seek political power. Oil companies, arms companies, mining companies. The invisible rich and their politician puppets. This is another rabbit hole I won't go into right now.
It is important to remember these groups are not religious cults. They are political factions which attract the worst of the worst. Religion has very little to do with it. Political power is their driving force. That, and sheer sadism.
Some of those at risk from these groups are tough. Some are smart. They do what they can to keep themselves and their families alive and safe. My family in Afghanistan was one of these until last week.
A few months ago, my youngest sister-in-law became of age (17) where other families could approach to begin marriage negotiations. While marriages are arranged, consent is still an important factor in old fashioned, traditional Muslim marriages. Both parties have to agree. The families and those to be married have to consent to the marriage. This was the case with my sister-in-law. She was very excited. Very happy to be getting married when she turned 18. As the baby of the household she was good at what she did. A real homebody. She liked looking after her family and was eager to have a family of her own and become the matriarch of her own brood. Study and independence was something she didn't aspire to. This was not from being pressured. She was just a kind, loving person who wanted a simple life as a good wife and Mother. Unfortunately, the family that she agreed to marry into had sinister motives for their offer. The family are affiliated with ISIS. There have been murder attempts on my in laws before. Many. By the grace of God and some luck, until now, the criminal terrorists' attempts have been unsuccessful. The sons of the family have military experience and have been no sitting ducks, unlike some other unfortunate families who have lost their beloved sons to assassinations of the terps. So ISIS and affiliated Taliban members hatched the plan of gaining trust through what seemed like a normal marriage proposal and contract. The plan was to kill the entire family, but as the opportunity to easily take out a whole family wasn't apparent, they decided to kill a young girl instead. Monsters.
I can't go into too much detail, as the police investigation is ongoing but I can tell you this. They lured her out of the house, under her Mother's eye, for some photos, and snatched her. Her Mother realised what was going on at that point, the police were called and the search began. They finally found her completely mutilated body the next morning, hacked with an axe, beyond recognition. As I said, the police investigation is ongoing and I can't go into more detail right now.
For most of you this is the stuff of movies. Something you see on the T.V. as happening to a faceless "no-one special". A foreigner who you don't care about at all. Well this time there is only two degrees of separation. You now know someone who knows her. She is someone to you now. We call her Malala for now. We will call her by her real name when the investigation is complete and punishment has been dealt to the murderers. When the immediate danger has passed, you will see the once beautiful face that goes with the name. The face and name that lives now inside the hearts of those that knew and love her. Me, her family, and the five hundred people from the community, that cried for her, visited the house and attended the ceremonies, since her death.
She was innocence and kindness. She really was. She was a victim of something she was not responsible for in an way.
RIP my dear sister. One day the world will know your name and your death will never have been in vain.
As God as my witness, I swear to do my best to make it so that all the deaths of all the innocent children killed by oil wars will not have been in vain.
