This is from the obituary of Karen Woo, Doctor, Aid worker, and now martyred by the Taliban. We need to keep her family, and the families of the other nine killed in this incident, in our thoughts and prayers.

The journey north was never going to be risk-free. The violence has now spread to the area, with the fighters of the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar carrying out attacks on government officials, foreigners and each other.

Dr Woo and her colleagues had been asked by elders in Nuristan for medical aid. It was, she maintained, a duty for them to go. “We know there may be problems, but these people need help and it seems right that we should try to give that help… we are not involved in politics: we are medics.”

The Badakhshan police chief said: “Before their travel, we warned them not to tour near jungles in Nuristan, but they said they were doctors and no one was going to hurt them.”

via The death of my friend Karen – Asia, World – The Independent.

The Taliban were concerned that they were Christian and trying to convert the locals. The fools. They neither understand that it is the duty of any doctor to treat whoever is bought to them — regardless of race or creed. Nor do they understand that the Christian base of Western Ethics mean that she was motivated to help the suffering.

And the Taliban do not understand a lesson the Soviets did learn: to make such a woman a martyr is to make these issues not go away. There is a saying in the Reformed tradition: the blood of the martyrs fertilises the church. Her work will continue.