Jacqui Lambie desecrated memory of Afghanistan hero, photographer says
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Version 0 of 1. The memory of Afghanistan’s first female police officer has been desecrated by the Palmer United party’s senator Jacqui Lambie and others, a photographer says. Canadian Lana Slezic is outraged to learn that her photograph of Afghanistan’s lieutenant colonel Malalai Kakar was being promoted by Lambie and the Britain First party as an image of a terrorist. The photographer says Kakar fought against extremism and terrorism and for women’s rights before she was assassinated by the Taliban in 2008. She was shot dead outside her home, in front of her son, on the way to work at a Kandahar police station. Lambie recently shared Slezic’s photograph of Kakar holding her police pistol while wearing a burqa, which was posted to Facebook without permission by Britain First. Britain First edited the image with a caption saying: “Terror attack level: severe – an attack is highly likely. For security reasons it’s now time to ban the burqa.” Slezic says those words imply that Kakar was a terrorist, and the use of it by Lambie and Britain First is desecrating her memory. Slezic says it is an image of a strong woman fighting against terrorism and extremism. “Here’s a woman whose life was taken by terrorists, extremists in the most horrific way,” she said. “She died in front of her son, shot to death outside her home on her way to work. “Everything she stood for, everything she fought for, for herself, her family, her daughters and future of her country, everything has been desecrated by how Jacqui Lambie and Britain First have used this photograph. “I’m outraged actually [that] they would steal a photograph without any sort of consent, completely misrepresent it, use it for their own political agendas.” She has tried to contact Lambie and Britain First to ask them to take down the picture and to explain who Kakar was, but she has received no response. Slezic plans to post a gallery of pictures of Kakar on her website http://lanaslezic.com/ to help show who she was and put her photo back into context. A spokesman for Lambie said she would talk about her use of the photo on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday morning. |