Charming and Erratic, a Notorious Afghan Speaks

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — One of Afghanistan’s most notorious serial killers lives in a dank prison cell in Jalalabad, sharing bunk beds, meals and blankets with fellow inmates. But the guards do not carry weapons, and the prison aides spend much of their days socializing with the convicts.

The killer, Shirin Gul, is in Nangarhar Women’s Prison, where most of her fellow inmates were convicted of adultery or theft. She is in the 12th year of a 20-year prison sentence for a killing spree that claimed the lives of 27 men. Her 7-year-old daughter was conceived and born in custody, and other prison mates also have children living in the cells with them.

In Afghanistan, a country of 30 million people where war has dominated the past four decades, death is a common feature of life. Lurid, tabloid-worthy serial homicide, however, is a relative rarity. That one of the culprits in the male-dominated society is a woman makes the case even more unusual.

“We have other murderers here,” said Col. Abdul Wali Hesarak, the warden of the Nangarhar prison, which includes both male and female compounds and is one of the largest in the country. “But I don’t see any cases as serious as hers.”

To hear Shirin Gul tell it, the murders were her lover’s idea, though she admits that she had consented to his killing her husband. She knew that her lover, Rahmatullah, poisoned his victims by slipping toxins into the tea and kebabs that she served them. And it is true that she frequently heard the sound of shovels in her courtyard, when graves were being dug.

She had heard many versions over the years, she said.

“Of course she is lying,” she added. “She definitely killed those men.”

Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting from Kabul and Jalalabad.

A version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2015, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Charming and Erratic, a Notorious Afghan Speaks . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe

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