The 15-year-old Afghan girl hailed a hero after she shot and killed a group of Taliban attackers who raided her home and killed her parents, married one of the assailants, according to a new report.
Qamar Gul, 15, was celebrated as a “heroine” after she was photographed posing with the rifle she used to defend herself against Taliban attackers.
“I am proud to have killed my parents’ killers,” she said last week. “I killed them because they killed my parents, and also because I knew they would come for me and my little brother.”
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However, her heroic story was much more complex than just protecting her and her younger brother, Habibullah, 12.
Family members and local officials told the New York Times this week that the teenager was actually married to one of the attackers, who was trying to forcefully catch her as part of a family feud.
Qamar Gul, 16, right, and his brother Habibullah, 12, pose for a photo at the governor’s office in Feroz Koh, the capital of western Afghanistan’s Ghor province, on Tuesday, 21 July 2020. (AP Photo)
The newspaper describes Ghor province as a “particularly brutal” area for women, as girls exchange at an early age.
Gul’s mother, Fatima, married twice before marrying Shan Gul Rahimi, whose brother was her second husband, and died in a violent clash with the Taliban in the 1990s, according to the report.
Rahimi was described as an “unconditional fighter”, despite having lost a hand years ago, who often helped the local militia defend against Taliban attacks. It was unclear if he was also on a government payroll, the Times reported.
He reportedly arranged in 2016 for Mohamed Naeem, a man from an adjacent village, to marry his daughter Qamar as his second wife. In return, Rahimi would marry Naeem’s teenage niece as his second wife.
“Naeem was their son-in-law, and they also got along very well,” Sebghatullah said, Rahimi’s nephew told the Times. “It all turned upside down at once.”
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Qamar Gul reportedly used an AK-47 to kill two Taliban militants. (Twitter)
It was not exactly clear when Naeem joined the Taliban. Family members and local officials said it happened over the past two years, at which point his private life deteriorated, particularly as he was persecuted for his debts.
According to his relatives, Naeem had a fight with his parents because of the treatment he gave his first wife, because he was spending all his time with his new and younger girlfriend. After an argument, Naeem took Qamar Gul and left the house, first staying with his in-laws, and then moving to Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.
The Times reported that during a trip to visit her family, Qamar Gul refused to return to her husband, at which point her father said he would keep her until Naeem paid off the debts she owed to the people of the village.
“Naeem’s niece was not happy with the marriage because Shah Gul was much older than her. But Qamar Gul was not arguing much: she said she agreed with what her father had decided, but that Naeem had to pay the debt, “a relative of Zabihullah Rahmani told the newspaper.
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However, Naeem seemed to have other thoughts and in the early hours of July 17, he and a dozen Taliban fighters surrounded the Gul hillside house and entered.
Rahimi’s and Gul’s mother, Fatima, were killed first, both shot multiple times. Qamar Gul grabbed his father’s AK-47 and began spraying attackers in the yard. She killed two of them and wounded a high Taliban commander.
The attackers fled the scene when neighbors and local militia fighters began arriving. Naeem was one of the murdered attackers.
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The Taliban confirmed that an operation was carried out in the area, but denied that any of the group’s fighters had been killed by a woman.
Meanwhile, activists demand that the government protect Qamar Gul, with some calling for him to be sent to live outside Afghanistan for his own safety.
