Bullets and bullets in the air: Nearly a year after Islamists came to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban violently dispersed a women’s demonstration in Kabul for their right to work and education on Saturday.
About forty women are chanting”Bread, work and freedomA group of Taliban fighters marched in front of the education ministry about 5 minutes after the start of the march, before dispersing them by firing in the air.
The protesters carried a banner that read: “15 august is black day“, with reference to the date the Taliban captured Kabul in 2021.
,Justice, righteousness. we are sick of ignorance“, they chanted before violently dispersed.
The Taliban, in military uniform and armed with assault rifles, blocked an intersection in front of the demonstrators and began firing long air shots. One of them copied a shot targeting protesters, an AFP journalist said.
Some of the protesters then took shelter in nearby shops where they were chased and beaten with rifle butts by the Taliban. They also confiscated the cell phones of women protesters.
Journalists have also been beaten up by the Taliban, AFP reports.
,Unfortunately the Taliban who were part of the intelligence services came and shot in the air“, one of the organizers of the demonstration, told AFP Jholia Parsi.
“From Our Homes”
,They scattered the girls, tore our banners and confiscated the cell phones of many girls“, He added.
Another protester, Munisa Mubariz, said she intended to continue the protests for women’s rights.
,We will not allow the Taliban to suppress our voice. we will protest from our homes“, He added.
Demonstrations by women demanding greater rights have become increasingly rare in the capital, especially after the arrests of the organizers of these gatherings earlier in the year, some of whom were detained for several weeks.
Since returning to power last August, radical Islamists have gradually eroded the freedoms enjoyed by women over the past 20 years since the fall of their previous regime (1996-2001).
He has imposed a number of restrictions on civil society, many of which aim to subject women to his radical conception of Islam.
They have largely thrown them out of government jobs, restricted their right to travel, and barred girls from middle and high school.
mandatory to wear a full veil
The latest ban is in early May, when the government, backed by the Taliban and Afghan Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, issued a decree making it mandatory for women to wear full-face veils in public.
The Taliban have clarified that their preference was for the burqa, this integral veil most often blue and mesh at eye level, but that other types of veils only revealing the eyes would be tolerated.
He also felt that as long as there was no pressure for women to go out, it was “better for them to stay at home”.
All these solutionsDescribe a model of total gender segregation and aim at making women invisible in society”, said Richard Bennett, the UN special envoy for human rights in Afghanistan in Kabul in May.
Human Rights Watch called on the Taliban in a press release on Thursday “reverse their terrible and misogynistic judgment“To put a stop to the education of women.
,This will send the message that the Taliban is ready to reconsider its most serious actions.”, said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at the NGO.
Over the past two decades, Afghan women have gained new freedoms to return to school or apply for jobs in all fields of activity, regardless of whether the country has been socially conservative.
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