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‘I'm very famous as a dangerous person in Khandahar,' Malalai Kakar once said about her role as police chief and head of the department for crimes against women.

An iconic figure among the thousands of women in Afghanistan who have been consistently denied police assistance, she was not afraid to deal out justice, once beating a man when she discovered he had been keeping his wife in chains in his basement.

Malalai Kakar was also very famous for her bravery. Tough and determined, she was recruited into the police force at 15 by her father.

Afghanistan needs female police officers because it is regarded as dishonourable for a woman to talk to a man who is not her husband. Malalai Kakar and her few female colleagues would attend female victims of accidents and they worked also with Afghanistan's innumerable female victims of domestic violence.

 

When the Taliban came into power she had to go into hiding, fleeing to Pakistan where she married a United Nations worker and started a family.

 

 

 

When the Taliban were ousted in 2001 she returned to Afghanistan and carried on with her duties despite three assassination attempts and a string of death threats. 'I live in an army compound to try to stay safe,' Malalai said. ‘This isn't an easy job, but it is important that women do it. We need to be a part of the new Afghanistan.’

 
 

With the Taliban's resurgence, her vocation became increasingly dangerous.

The Taliban put her on a hit list and left death threats - their dreaded so called 'night letters' - on the door of her home each night. She used to get up early in the morning to remove the notes before her children could see them. Tragically, in September 2008 she was shot dead by Taliban gunmen outside her home.

Her 18 year old son was also shot and later died in hospital. 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Read a profile or read her obituary.

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