The Taliban successfully struck out against Afghanistan’s women’s right movement Sunday when they assassinated one of the nation’s leading activists, Sitara Achakzai.

Achakzai was reportedly standing outside her house in Kandahar when two men on a motorbike drove up, fired shots and sped away. The Taliban later took full responsibility for the attack.

This isn’t the first time Achakzai found herself in extremists’ cross-hairs. She was injured in a suicide attack at a Kandahar government building two weeks ago. Her friends urged her to leave the country, but Ms. Achakzai insisted on staying in Afghanistan. Yesterday was the first time she had returned home since the suicide attack, according to the Independent.

As Achakzai’s colleagues and allies mourned her death, Wenny Kusuma, the director of the United Nations Development fund for Women in Afghanistan, said the assassination speaks volumes about Afghanistan’s deteriorating situation: “This cold-blooded assassination puts in question the direction that Afghanistan is heading. There is no respect for the rule of law.”