I later learned that her name was Zarmina. She was a thirty-five-year-old mother of five whose husband had a reputation for abuse. She had married him when she was just sixteen. The Taliban never found a murder weapon, but locals report that they got a confession after beating Zarmina for two days with steel cables. Convicted in a secret trial, Zarmina spent three years in an Afghan prison, while her oldest daughters were sold into sex slavery by relatives. Friends say she came to the soccer stadium expecting a series of lashes, not death. CNN repeatedly aired the tape, perhaps to make us feel
...more
