22-Year-Old Woman Faces ‘Death by Stoning for Secretly Teaching Girls Martial Arts’

A 22-year-old woman who secretly taught girls taekwondo in Afghanistan is feared to be facing a brutal death sentence after being arrested by Taliban authorities, activists say.

Khadija Ahmadzada was detained on January 10 in the western city of Herat after officials discovered she had been training young girls in martial arts inside a hidden courtyard at her home — an act that directly defies the Taliban’s sweeping ban on women participating in sports.

Since her arrest, campaigners fear Ahmadzada may have already been sentenced to death, reportedly by stoning, for what authorities consider a crime under Taliban rule.

British-Afghan activist Shabnam Nasimi has been raising the alarm online, urging the international community to act quickly before it’s too late.

“She refused to accept that being female is a crime,” Nasimi wrote on Instagram. “That quiet act of defiance has come at a price.”

According to witnesses cited by Nasimi, Taliban morality police raided Ahmadzada’s home and detained both her and her father, dragging them outside before taking them into custody. Ahmadzada has reportedly been held for more than a week, with her family hearing nothing from her during that time.

“There are rumors from people around Khadija that the court has ruled on an extreme death sentence — stoning — for the crime of practicing and playing sport,” Nasimi said.

She also explained the punishment in stark terms for those unfamiliar with it: “Stoning is when stones are thrown at a living human being until they bleed, collapse, and die.”

Activists are now racing against time, calling on supporters to flood social media with Ahmadzada’s name in hopes that global attention could save her life.

“When the international spotlight lands on a regime like this, they hesitate,” Nasimi said. “Not because they grow a conscience, but because they fear consequences, pressure, exposure, and intervention. If Khadija becomes famous enough, they may back off.”

Ahmadzada’s case is unfolding amid an escalating crackdown on Afghan women and girls since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Female education beyond middle school has been banned, along with all women’s sports. Girls are no longer allowed to attend school past the ages of 12 or 13, cutting off any path to higher education.

Many young women, like a 17-year-old volunteer teacher named Farahnaz from Helmand Province, have spoken about the devastating impact of these restrictions. Once active and preparing for university, she now teaches younger girls in secret to keep their hope alive, even as she says morale among students and teachers has collapsed.

“Even going out of the house is a worry now,” she said in testimony shared by humanitarian groups. “It feels like eyes are always watching.”

Under Taliban rule, women are required to cover their faces and bodies in public, are forbidden from interacting with unrelated men, and are restricted from being seen inside their own homes. Even women’s voices — singing, speaking, or being heard by other women — have been targeted under the regime’s so-called vice prevention strategy.

Reports have also emerged of female beggars being beaten, raped, or forced into labor by Taliban officials.

A United Nations report released last July warned that the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has created a climate of fear and intimidation, particularly for women and girls. UNICEF has repeatedly sounded alarms about the long-term consequences, with one senior official previously calling the oppression of Afghan women and girls “the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world.”