“I cut off his ears and nose. I don’t know if a cat ate his ears, but his nose went down the drain…”
There are some things that all parents have in common, regardless of geography or culture. Arguably, one of those things would be the burning desire by family, especially parents, for revenge against any individual who wold visit violence on their children. As reported by Pakistan Today and also by (Britain’s) The Daily Mail, both the mother and father of an Afghan teen have been arrested for taking a knife to a Muslim cleric who reportedly is under investigation for the sexual molestation of their 14-year-old child.
Abdul and Sultana Qahar were taken into custody by law enforcement officials in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan for the slashing attack to the head and face of a yet-to-be-identified Islamic imam, reportedly cutting off his ears and nose. The Provincial Director of the Office of Women’s Affairs, Khadija Yaqeen, stated that the teenager had recently informed her parents that the local Islamic preacher had begun sexually assaulting and molesting her upwards of four months ago. It was then that the parents allegedly plotted to exact revenge on their mullah (loosely translated: “vicar,” “master” or “guardian”).
Baghlan police spokesman Ahmad Jawid Basharat informed the press that Abdul and Sultana invited the preacher to their home, ostensibly for an evening meal. It is a region of the world where the culture and religious teaching demand family honor be held as one of the highest priorities in life. Either real of perceived, any slight to the family name is more often than not, washed away only with blood, and a rather bloody situation is what the parents are now charged with.
As reported, when the imam arrived at the Qahar hovel, Abdul overpowered him and eventually bound him hand and foot. At that point, the family patriarch produced an edged weapon and proceeded to carve off the mullah’s nose and ears.
Abdul was given the opportunity to answer reporters questions, from all places, directly in the office of the Chief of Police. Still clad wearing his traditional Afghan halwar kameez and a turban, the arrested father was quite up-front and honest regarding exactly what he did to the 32-year-old mullah:
I cut off his ears and nose. I don’t know if a cat ate his ears, but his nose went down the drain.
Possibly the voice of reason for the Qahar clan, Sultana was a bit more erudite with her take of the overall situation:
If there was a functioning rule of law, then he would be punished even more severely.
