KABUL: A young Afghan artist who walked through the streets of Kabul wearing a suit of armour in protest against sexual harassment has gone into hiding after receiving death threats.

Kubra Khademi, 27, had walked around in the costume in central Kabul on February 26 hoping to cast a spotlight on groping and inappropriate touching of women in public spaces in Afghanistan. The suit was fashioned at a cost of 500 Afghanis ($10) by a local blacksmith, said Khademi.

She then decided to take it out for a run. After removing her coat in the street, the young artist, who was wearing a hijab, said she found herself harassed from all sides and was forced to flee after jeers and stones were hurled her way. “It did go according to what I was expecting.

The crowd was coming at me and sort of pushing me,” she said on International Women’s Day, adding she had to escape the area in a taxi.

Khademi said a painful event from her early childhood had evoked her bold protest.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2015

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