Women’s rights activist killed in Afghanistan

A women’s rights activist has been shot dead in Afghanistan, after the government refused to provide bodyguards or offical transportation.

The Times reports that Safia Ama Jan was getting into a car outside her house when she was shot at by two gunmen on motorbikes.

Ama Jan had worked as provincial director of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Kandahar since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001.

The United Nations condemned the killing. Aleem Siddique, from the UN’s assistance mission in Afghanistan, said: “UNAMA is appalled by this senseless murder of a woman who was simply working to ensure that all Afghan women play a full and equal part in the future of Afghanistan.”