Afghanistan: negotiator and activist Fawzia Koofi shot dead in Kabul

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2 min

While intra-Afghan peace negotiations are expected to begin in Doha, Qatar in the coming days, a member of the Afghan delegation was targeted by armed men on Friday August 14 near Kabul. This is MP and women's rights activist Fawzia Koofi. The attack has not been claimed. The Taliban deny any involvement.

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With our correspondent in Islamabad, Sonia Ghezali

In the photo taken hours after the attack, Fawzia Kooffi appears lying in a hospital bed, her right arm wrapped in a bandage. The Afghan MP was shot by gunmen as she got out of a car, accompanied by her sister, near Kabul. “  This injury is not fatal,  ” she wrote on her Facebook account.

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Increasingly Targeted Human Rights Activists

Fawia Koofi had already survived a similar attack in 2010. In Afghanistan, she is known for her harsh criticism of the Taliban. His political career began the day after the intervention of the United States which ended the Taliban regime. She was then elected Member of Parliament and later became the first woman vice-president of Parliament.

Recently, despite everything, she confided that she believed in peace negotiations. “  They seem to have changed,  ” she said of the Taliban. The latter deny any involvement. However, some doubt their innocence in the attempted assassination of this figure of feminism and the defense of human rights.

Four women are part of the Afghan delegation that will participate in negotiations with the Taliban. She is one of them. And this attack comes in a climate of fear. Targeted attacks against human rights activists have increased in the Afghan capital.

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• Afghanistan
• Taliban

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