- Global Voices - https://globalvoices.org -

Pashto Singer Ghazala Javed's Ex-Husband Sentenced to Death for Her Murder

Categories: South Asia, Pakistan, Arts & Culture, Breaking News, Law, Music, Politics, Religion

The ex-husband of Pashto singer and anti-Taliban activist Ghazala Javed has been sentenced to death [1] by a court in Pakistan's northwestern Swat district, for murdering the singer and her father in 2012. 

Ghazala Javed (1988-2012). Image courtesy Wikipedia [2]

Ghazala Javed (1988-2012). Image courtesy Wikipedia

During her lifetime, Ghazala Javed bravely defied [3] Taliban pressure to stop singing and spoke up against creeping Talibanization [4]in her hometown Swat. The Taliban were briefly in control of Swat and were cleared from the area after a massive military operation by the Pakistan army in 2009. 

Ghazala's ex-husband Jehangir Khan was awarded a double death sentence along with a Rs 70 million (0.7 million USD) fine. He has announced plans to appeal the decision.

A number of Pakistanis reacted to the court's decision and remembered the enigmatic singer on Twitter.

Following the news of the sentence, SAbaseen expresses relief:

Ghazala was an ethnic-Pashtun and sang in Pakistan's north-western region's language Pashto. One of her fans, a Pashtun Twitter user Schazad Bangash, praised the sentence:

Commenting on the judgement another Pashtun Twitter user Nazrana Yousufzai said:

Expressing his disbelief on the legal and judicial system, Royal Pashtoon responded:

Journalist Javed Aziz Khan posts a portrait of the singer:

Ghazala's Pashto songs were also popular in Afghanistan. Pashto is one of Afghanistan's official languages [17].  Hyprgee posted a clip from Ghazala's last concert in Kabul: