By: Jon Boone
Date: 13 April 2009
Source: The Guardian (UK)
Sitara Achakai, a leading female Afghan politician, was shot dead after leaving a provincial council meeting in Kandahar, which her colleagues had begged her not to attend. Sitara was attacked by two gunmen as she arrived home in a rickshaw - a vehicle she chose rather than an armoured Humvee to avoid attracting attention, but which also made her easier prey. The Taliban, whose spiritual home is Kandahar, claimed responsibility.
Achakai was a women's rights activist who had organised a "prayer for peace" with 1,500 attendees on International Women's Day 2008. She was secretary of the provincial council, which, until her death, had four female members in the 15-strong body. She returned home to Kandahar in 2004 after many years living in Germany, and was aware of the danger she was in.
Taliban militants target anyone associated with the Afghan government and last month launched an assaut with four suicide bombers on the provincial council building in Kandahar, killing 17 people. There have been many other attacks on women in the province including the assassination in 2006 of the head of the province's women's affairs department, the killing of a top policewoman, and acid thrown in schoolgirls' faces for attending school.
