Murder of Farkhunda Malikzada

The murder of Farkhunda Malikzada was committed by a Muslim mob in Kabul, Afghanistan, on 19 March 2015. Malikzada, a 27-year-old Afghan woman, had been involved in an argument with a street vendor over his practice of selling amulets when he publicly accused her of burning the Quran, attracting a large group of people from the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque. Shortly thereafter, she was publicly lynched, with several members of the mob bludgeoning her and then running her over with a car, which dragged her for nearly 100 metres (330 ft). Subsequently bringing her near the Kabul River, the mob, while yelling the takbir and anti-American slogans, took turns further bludgeoning her corpse before setting it on fire, with some of the assailants ripping off parts of their clothes to use for kindling, as Malikzada's clothes were soaked in blood and her corpse would not stay burning.

In the aftermath of Malikzada's lynching, public opinion was overwhelmingly against her; a number of Muslim clerics and Afghan government officials stated that she had desecrated Islam in order to gain American citizenship, and a police investigation was also launched to determine whether she had truly burned the Quran. When it was revealed that she had not done so, 49 people were arrested in connection with her death and protests erupted throughout Kabul. Three men were sentenced to 20 years in prison, another eight men were sentenced to 16 years in prison, and a 20-year-old man who had fabricated his birth certificate in an attempt to present himself as a legal minor was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Additionally, 11 police officers received one-year prison sentences for their failure to protect Malikzada from the mob.

Malikzada's murder was condemned by the United States and the European Union, and drew renewed international attention to the issue of women's rights in Afghanistan. Later that year, the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan sponsored the construction of a memorial for her in Kabul.