In March, a terrible event took place in the middle of Kabul. Near the famous Shah-e Do Shamshira mosque, a woman was lynched and burned by a mob of young men. No one defended the twenty-seven-year-old woman — not even the police. Instead, most of the bystanders took out their smartphones to record the vicious murder. It was undoubtedly one of the darkest days in the young history of Afghanistan’s capital.

According to initial rumors, the woman, whose name was Farkhunda, was mentally ill and had burned a Quran. Both claims turned out to be false. Farkhunda was in fact a devoted Muslim woman, and a graduate of a local religious school.

On the day she was killed, Farkhunda visited a shrine that carried amulets, or taweez. These amulets are said to heal people and provide assistance in difficult situations. But this old superstition has become commercialized in Afghanistan over the last few centuries. The people who sell these amulets, taweezgars, are businessmen. They do not have any religious education, so even though they deal with religious objects, it is wrong to equate them with traditional Islamic clerics.