Woman cop blinded for getting a job

KABUL: The last thing 33-year-old Khatera saw were the three men on a motorcycle who attacked her just after she left her job at a police station in Afghanistan’s central Ghazni province, shooting at her and stabbing her with a knife in the eyes. Waking up in hospital, everything was dark. “I asked the doctors, why I can’t see anything? They told me that my eyes are still bandaged because of the wounds. But at that moment, I knew my eyes had been taken from me,” she said. She and local authorities blame the attack on Taliban militants —who deny involvement — and say the assailants acted on a tip-off from her father who vehemently opposed her working outside the home. For Khatera, the attack caused not just the loss of her sight but the loss of a dream she had battled to achieve — to have an independent career. She joined the Ghazni police as an officer in its crime branch a few months ago. “I wish I had served in police at least a year. If this had happened to me after that, it would have been less painful. It happened too soon... I only got to work and live my dream for three months,” she said. The attack on Khatera, who only uses one name, is indicative of a growing trend, human rights activists say, of an intense and often violent backlash against women taking jobs, especially in public roles. In Khatera’s case, being a police officer could have also angered the Taliban. The rights activists believe a mix of Afghanistan’s conservative social norms and an emboldened Taliban gaining influence while the United States withdraws its troops from the country is driving the escalation. — Reuters