Cruelty had started as soon as the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. Now, several reports have claimed that Talibani fighters have beheaded Afghanistan's junior national volleyball female player.
Reports quoted the coach of the football team, Mahjabeen Hakimi, who used to play in Afghanistan's junior women's volleyball team, saying that Mahjabeen was beheaded in early October.
It was also reported that no one came to know about the brutal murder as Taliban fighters threatened the player's family not to tell anyone about it. Mehjabeen played for the Kabul Municipality Volleyball Club before the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government and was one of the club's star players.
However, new information has emerged saying that the reports are false and Taliban has no role in the death of Mahjabeen Hakimi as she died 10 days before the Taliban took over the country on August 15.
Mehjabeen Hakimi belonged to the Hazara ethnic group. The Hazaras are a minority in Afghanistan, hated and persecuted by the Taliban. The Hazaras are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and a religious minority. About 10 per cent of Muslims in Sunni-majority Afghanistan are Shia and almost all of them are Hazaras. The Taliban and Islamic State are Sunni. The Hazaras are said to be of Mongolian and Central Asian descent and descended from Mongolian leader Genghis Khan. He invaded Afghanistan in the 13th century. They mostly live in the mountainous region of central Afghanistan, which is known as 'Hazaristan' or the land of the Hazaras.
The 2018 UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan report stated that a majority of the minority population is being targeted by the Taliban. In these too, most of those attacked belong to the Hazara community. The coach of the Afghan women's national volleyball team said some of the team's players managed to flee the country before the Taliban took control in August but Mehjabeen Hakimi failed to escape.
After the Taliban came to power, strict restrictions have been imposed on sports, especially women's sports. There are very few female players left in the country, most of them have already left the country.
