Lt. Col. Malalai Kakar
Martyred during Ramadan, 28 September 2008/1429 A.H.
On Sunday morning, Lt. Col. Malalai Kakar, the highest-ranking policewoman in Afghanistan was martyred in Kandahar. Mrs Kakar was a champion of women in Afghanistan and an example for women around the world as she worked tirelessly to combat drugs and the abuse of women and children. She fought for what was Islamic and what was true and right, not what the religious authorities or the Taliban decreed. She was for us who knew of her work and her jihad, one of the many women of Khadijah’s Jihad.
I never had the opportunity to meet Mrs Kakar, but through friends who knew her, I feel blessed. To only be separated by a thread, despite there being an ocean and a continent between us, brings some comfort as she joins the ranks of the remarkable women who we will never truly know, but who we will always love and admire for their grace, dignity, and the courage with which they stood before their assassins. May she find her rightful place in Paradise and may her murderers find their rightful place in the wrath of G-d.
Make right for me my faith,
which is the foundation of my life.
Make right for me the world in which I live.
Make right for me the eternal home to which I will return.
(The Holy Qur’an)
(Originally written for Jemima Jerome)
