The women worked as security guards at a Kandahar airport, searching luggage and female passengers. They had received death threats from people opposed to women in the workforce.
Unknown gunmen killed five female Afghan guards working at an airport in southern Kandahar on Saturday, highlighting the continuing threat faced by women working outside of the home in Afghanistan.
Gunmen on a motorbike fired on a vehicle carrying the women to Kandahar International Airport, where they were responsible for searching luggage and female passengers, officials said. The driver was also killed.
Airport Director Ahmadullah Faizi said the women had received death threats from people opposed to their work.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban and other insurgents battling the internationally backed government of President Ashraf Ghani oppose women working outside of traditional roles within the home.
Over the past decade women have made gradual steps to gain rights in the conservative country. During the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule, women were prohibited from attending school or working.
Women in Afghanistan continue to face widespread discrimination, violence and abuse.
cw/tj (AFP, AP, Reuters)
Under the Taliban, women were required to wear an all-covering burqa when venturing outside their homes. But there were times in Afghan history when they adopted a more Western clothing style, as these photos show.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Aspiring doctors
This picture, taken in 1962, shows two female medicine students at the University of Kabul listening to their professor as they examine a plaster showing a human body part. At that time, women played an active role in Afghan society. They also had access to education and were able to take up work outside home.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
Style on Kabul's streets
Two young women dressed in Western-style outfits are seen in this picture taken in 1962 outside the building of Radio Kabul in the country's capital city, Kabul. After the fundamentalist Taliban took over power in the mid-1990s, women were required to wear an all-covering burqa when in public.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Equal rights for all - not always
In the mid-1970s, female students were a common sight at Afghan education centers such as Kabul's Polytechnical University. But some 20 years later, women's access to education in the conflict-ridden country was completely shut down. And it changed only after the toppling of the Taliban regime in 2001. The right to education for both men and women was enshrined in the 2003 Afghan Constitution.
Image: Getty Images/Hulton Archive/Zh. Angelov
Computer science in its infancy
In this picture a Soviet instructor is seen teaching computing technology to Afghan students at Kabul's Polytechnical Institute. During the 10-year Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, a number of Soviet lecturers taught at Afghan universities.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
Students among themselves
This 1981 picture shows an informal gathering of female and male Afghan students in Kabul. In 1979, a Soviet invasion of land-locked Afghanistan led to a 10-year war. When the Soviets withdrew from the country in 1989, a civil war ensued which culminated in the Taliban's accession to power in 1996.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
Schools for all
This picture shows Afghan girls at a secondary school in Kabul at the time of the Soviet occupation. During the Taliban regime that followed just a few years later, women and girls were barred from attending school and denied access to education. They were also banned from taking up employment outside home.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
A two-class society
In this picture taken in 1981, a woman, unveiled and without a headscarf, is seen with her children. Scenes such as these have been rare ever since. Even almost 15 years after the collapse of the Taliban regime, women continue to struggle for equality in the male-dominated Afghan society. For instance, there is only one woman taxi driver in the entire country.
