The malicious attack on my colleague Razaq Mamoon in Afghanistan came as a shock to me yesterday. I learned that a lone assailant had sprayed acid on Mamoon's face, scarring it badly and injuring his arms and chest.
I heard the news as I was going to court in the US, applying for asylum because of fear of similar attacks. Here I am, trying to prove a journalist’s life isn’t easy in Afghanistan, and I am confronted by unwanted proof.
During my court hearing, I kept thinking about the attack. Mammon is perhaps one of the best journalists Afghanistan has had in decades. He has been a thorn in the side of corrupt politicians, meddling embassies, and blood-thirsty warlords. And he lives in a country where journalists are about as safe as bait-worms in a pond full of bass.
I knew Mamoon from my time at Kabul Weekly, a newspaper he established in the early 1990s. Although I never worked with him, I admire him. My editor, everyone who worked in Kabul Weekly, and other journalists were well aware of the man and his push for an independent media in the country.
Too bad, it appears, that neither Afghans nor their government are ready for freedom of the press. You don’t need to look far to see the cases. There have been at least three well-publicised instances when Afghan journalists have been dragged to court under the country’s blasphemy law. Every year, several are killed either by the Taliban, the warlords, or "enemies of the state" who somehow conspicuously manage to elude prosecution.
And this time, there may be an added factor.
Mamoon claims the attack on him was carried out by Iranian agents. He believes the attacker had received his orders from Tehran because the regime does not want Mamoon’s new book –-- a lengthy expose on how Iran’s mullahs tried to destabilise Afghanistan during the years of Taliban rule --- to see the light of publication.
For now, neither I nor others can confirm or deny this. What I can say is that, knowing my colleagues in Afghanistan, everyone is extremely angry right now. And I share that anger. An attack on Razaq Mamoon, be it by the Iranian authorities or by the Afghan warlords, is an attack on every. It is an attack on freedom of speech world-wide. It is an attack on the basic principle that we are born with the right to speak our minds and put out the truth, not just in front of those who seek it but also in front of those who would rather turn a blind eye.
Mamoon is a man who fulfilled that principle. And if his attackers thought he will stop because of this, they are wrong. The Mamoon I know, the Mamoon I admire, the Mamoon I came to regard as a role model is stronger than that.
Afghanistan may remain in turmoil. Journalists will still be in jeopardy. But Razaq Mamoon will be back.