Author of popular memoir recounting her escape from the Taliban, shot dead

[cali]

Sushmita Banerjee, who was married to an Afghan businessman, was killed outside her home in Paktika province.

The book about her dramatic escape in 1995 became a best-seller in India and was made into a Bollywood film in 2003.

Ms Banerjee had recently moved back to Afghanistan to live with her husband.

A senior police official told the BBC's Jafar Haand that Ms Banerjee, who was also known as Sayed Kamala, was working as a health worker in the province and had been filming the lives of local women as part of her work.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-23968427

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. This is a blow against ALL independent, free-thinking women.

And it's horrible.

Goddamn it that we live in a world where women are routinely preyed upon because of their sex.

[Grateful for Hope]

2. omg...

[shenmue]

3. Rest in peace

It's such a shame to lose people like her.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

4. Incredibly sad.

[Octafish]

5. What Afghanistan was like before we made it into the Soviet Union's Vietnam.

http://www.businessinsider.com/astonishing-photos-of-prewar-afghanistan-show-everyday-life-in-peaceful-kabul-2013-2?op=1

[7962]

6. Lebanon was much the same way before Hezbollah and the civil wars

A tourist destination for a long time back when I was a kid.

[Cleita]

7. Yes, I remember when Beirut was called the Paris of the

Middle East on account of the upscale restaurants, fashion houses, and an affluent and educated middle class who could afford those amenities.

[JI7]

8. Beirut still has some of that, it's not nearly as bad as Afghanistan