[1] 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.

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 was soaked in blood and 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.

[4] 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.

Farkhunda had previously been arguing with the mullah Zainuddin in front of Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque where she worked as a religious teacher, about his practice of selling amulets.

[12] On 22 March, a number of women, dressed in black, carried Farkhunda's coffin from an ambulance to a prayer ground and then to a graveyard in Chaikhana, a northern neighborhood of Kabul.

[21] In August 2015, an examination of the outcome of the proceedings in the matter by a panel of lawyers appointed by President Ashraf Ghani resulted in a planned recommendation to the Supreme Court of Afghanistan that those accused in her death be retried.

[23] On 19 March 2016, the Women's Political Participation Committee, an Afghan civil society organization, called for reevaluation of the Supreme Court's decisions with more transparency.

A spokesman for the Kabul police Hashmat Stanekzai, wrote that Farkhunda “thought, like several other unbelievers, that this kind of action and insult will get them U.S. or European citizenship.

A number of women on the march wore masks of her bloodied face while others condemned the government for failing to bring security to Afghanistan.

[30] On 27 April, Leena Alam and her co- actors re-enacted the attack during a protest in Kabul, in what Afghan observers called an unprecedented case of a public theatrical performance commemorating a woman's murder.

[31] Afghan president Ashraf Ghani ordered an investigation into the incident and, in a statement released by his office, condemned the "act of extreme violence".

Hashmat Stanikzai, an official spokesman for the Kabul police who publicly endorsed the murder, was sacked over comments that he made on social media supporting Farkhunda's killers.

Blatantly disregarding the law, the court decided that the men convicted of having a primary role in Farkhunda's horrific death were entitled to a reduction in their sentence.

Assertions of corruption mean absolutely nothing if those that are in power - like the Appellate Court judges - are allowed to continue to perpetrate such legal atrocities.

The inability of the judiciary to handle Farkhunda's case in a fair and equal manner simply reinforces questions about its commitment to progress the status of women in Afghanistan.

A spokeswoman for European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement that "the killing of Ms. Farkhunda... is a tragic reminder of dangers women face from false accusations and the lack of justice in Afghanistan."

"[7] The United States also condemned the murder, with a statement from its embassy in Kabul calling for "those responsible to be brought to justice so such heinous acts will never occur again".

One of them, the influential Maulavi Ayaz Niazi of the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque, warned the government that any attempt to arrest the men who had "defended the Quran" would lead to an uprising.

[46] Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, a prominent, conservative, Islamic scholar, expressed horror on his Facebook page and said "A sign of how truly civilized a nation is, is how it treats its women.