Hundreds of Afghan women gathered on Tuesday in the city of Kandahar to protest against the kidnapping of Cyd Mizell, an American aid worker, and her Afghan driver on Saturday morning. Ms. Mizell was on her way to work when she was kidnapped, but Afghan officials still has no clues on who the authors of the attack were.

The 49-year-old woman was working for the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation and had been in Kandahar for the last three years. The organization runs multiple projects in Afghanistan and 12 other countries across Asia, but it is for the first time they are dealing with such a delicate situation. Up until now, no claims have been made regarding the American citizen.

Approximately 500 Afghan women showed their support for Mizell and the disapproval for her kidnapping on Tuesday, several Afghan women associations have appealed to both officials and regular civilians to work together for her release. “This is against Islam, this is against Afghan culture, particularly against Kandahari custom, a woman’s abduction,” said Runa Tareen, director of women’s affairs in Kandahar, according to The New York Times.

Cyd Mizell was an English professor at Kandahar University and also gave embroidery lessons at a girls’ school. It is unclear who and why kidnapped her, and that’s what makes the investigation so difficult and frustrating, Jeff Palmer, the director of the Asia Rural Life Development Foundation, said on Monday, hoping the kidnappers will contact them as soon as possible and they will be able to hear about the safety of the American aid worker and her driver.

In the past year alone, 23 South Koreans, two German construction workers and two Italian journalists have been kidnapped in Afghanistan; unfortunately two of the Koreans and one German were killed. Kidnappings of American citizens are rare in Afghanistan, but the country had an unusual increase in the kidnapping rate last year, after rumors of foreign governments paying significant ransoms started to appear.