( CNN ) The murder earlier this month of 27-year-old Farkhunda at the hands of a mob that beat her to death , burned her body and tossed her into a river shocked Afghanistan , a country in which unspeakable things often hit the headlines . The young woman from Kabul was falsely accused of burning pages in the Holy Quran . What followed was the horror of mob rule , all captured on video while bystanders looked on . Soon after the incident , the images of her brutal slaying went viral on social media , noted Afghanistan 's TOLO News . And this time , the outrage led Afghans to the streets , with assistance from Facebook and other social media . These platforms have served both to disseminate the images of her savage beating and murder and as a means for convening those who are mobilizing and organizing to protest her killing . Last week , crowds chanted for days , calling for justice for Farkhunda and `` death for her killers . '' And , TOLO News reported , protests were held in different parts of the country , calling for the `` ultimate penalty to the perpetrators . '' Indeed , technology and connectedness have played a role in changing the old narratives in Afghanistan , as Farkhunda 's killing shows . Not only was her murder captured and shared online , but some of those men arrested for her killing were found to have confessed via social media posts . And now a country 's anguish is shared in those same online and virtual neighborhoods . Some Afghan civil society leaders see the protests that have resulted as yet another sign of an evolving Afghanistan -- a nation whose recently elected leaders , now sharing a unity government , visited Washington , D.C. , in an effort to turn the page on the past . `` When we are talking about this case , what is it showing us ? First of all , when we are talking about women 's rights , we see that we have succeeded ; people will not tolerate what they tolerated a decade ago , '' said Nargis Nehan , founder and executive director of Equality for Peace and Democracy , a non-governmental organization created to promote `` a culture of peace , tolerance , transparency and accountability . '' She was speaking last Tuesday at a roundtable at Georgetown University 's Institute for Women , Peace and Security , organized around the visit by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah . `` If this was the Afghanistan of a decade before and this would have happened , a small group of Afghan women would have come to the streets to be seeking justice . Today we have men seeking justice . '' Nehan explained that the younger generation , a progressive generation , wants to have a peaceful Afghanistan . `` But at the same time , we have conservatives who have been power-holders for many decades in Afghanistan and they do n't want to see that . Change always has a cost and unfortunately in this case we see that a very innocent girl like Farkhunda has paid that . '' Nehan and other leaders from Afghanistan could be seen checking Facebook frequently for updates on what was happening on the streets of their capital . What they found was an online community sustaining the strong sense of injustice over Farkhunda 's killing that prompted the Afghan President to announce , even before he left for the United States , a fact-finding commission to investigate her murder . Yet some Afghan leaders worried that the brutality of this murder marked another troubling turning point in a country wrestling with a great many transitions -- economic , security and political -- all at once . `` It never ( before ) happened to women at this level ; this was really one of the shocking acts of violence publicly within the capital , '' said Sima Samar , head of the Afghan Human Rights Commission , at the Georgetown panel . `` It is not far from the palace , less than one kilometer . '' `` My personal concern is that if we do not manage the case properly , it might be used against us and against women 's rights in the country , '' Samar added . Women have gained a great deal in the roughly 13 years since the Taliban was ousted from power . Today , 3 million girls attend school . Women serve in the country 's security forces -- albeit in very small numbers . They sit in Parliament and work as entrepreneurs , teachers and civil society advocates . Still , violence against women remains rampant and widespread . The practice of child marriage is outlawed but still common in some parts of the country . And security and the economy are still major challenges , particularly in the more remote provinces of the country untouched by the modernization gripping the nation 's more urban centers . Indeed , Samar and other human rights advocates and civil society leaders who have played a role in post-Taliban Afghanistan say they are determined that Farkhunda 's death will not be in vain . They say they will continue to fight to keep her case in the spotlight and to see justice served . Their commitment to seeking public justice for a public horror may well be one of the most powerful signals yet of an Afghanistan that is indeed a very different nation than it was only a decade ago .
Murder of 27-year-old woman by mob in D.C. set social media ablaze with calls for justice . Lemmon : Outrage , Afghan President 's call for probe signal a changing nation years after Taliban rule .