“The parents of the 32-year-old woman, who died in the attack, told authorities her name was Farkhunda and that she suffered from mental illness.” That seems likely. After all, if she were in her right mind, would she set a Qur’an on fire in Kabul? Or maybe she was in her right mind, but simply had had enough of the hatred, violence, oppression and misogyny justified and incited by the book. In any case, the mob that killed her didn’t care if she was mentally ill or not: there is no mercy in such matters.
“Afghan woman set ablaze by mob for burning Koran,” by Ali M. Latifi and Shashank Bengali, Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2015 (thanks to Darcy):
A woman who reportedly burned a copy of the Koran inside a riverside shrine in the Afghan capital was surrounded by an angry crowd, set ablaze and dumped into the chilly waters Thursday evening in a startling act of mob violence.
The parents of the 32-year-old woman, who died in the attack, told authorities her name was Farkhunda and that she suffered from mental illness, said Farid Afzal, head of investigations for Kabul police.
Police were still investigating the incident and offered few details, but said they had arrested four suspects. Witnesses said that a huge throng of people had gathered at the scene to watch, some scaling the walls alongside the river, others climbing to the roofs of multi-colored stalls lining the streets of the crowded outdoor market where the Shah-Do Shamshira shrine sits.
“They broke the railing above the shrine itself, that’s how strong they were,” said Shah Jahan, a shopkeeper, who estimated the crowd was in the thousands. “You couldn’t see past the people.”
It was not immediately clear how many people carried out the attack, or whether a crowd egged on the woman’s assailants, but it was believed to be the first time that someone in Afghanistan had been killed for burning a copy of the Muslim holy book….