KABUL —
Taliban fighters beat women
protesters and fired into the air on Saturday as they violently dispersed a
rare rally in the Afghan capital, days ahead of the first anniversary of the
hardline Islamists’ return to power.
اضافة اعلان
Since seizing control on August 15 last year, the
Taliban have rolled back the marginal gains made by women during two decades of
US intervention in Afghanistan.
About 40 women — chanting “bread, work, and freedom”
— marched in front of the education ministry building in Kabul, before the
fighters dispersed them by firing their guns into the air, an AFP correspondent
reported.
Some women protesters who took refuge in nearby
shops were chased and beaten by Taliban fighters with their rifle butts.
The demonstrators carried a banner which read
“August 15 is a black day” as they demanded rights to work and political
participation.
“Justice, justice. We’re fed up with ignorance,”
they chanted, many not wearing face veils.
“Unfortunately, the Taliban from the intelligence
service came and fired in the air,” said Zholia Parsi, one of the organizers of
the march.
“They dispersed the girls, tore our banners, and
confiscated the mobile phones of many girls.”
But protester Munisa Mubariz vowed to continue
fighting for women’s rights.
“If the Taliban want to silence this voice, it’s not
possible. We will protest from our homes,” she said.
Some journalists covering the demonstration — the
first women’s rally in months — were also beaten by the Taliban fighters, an
AFP correspondent saw.
‘Making women invisible’
While the Taliban
authorities have allowed and even promoted some rallies against the US, they
have declined permission for any women’s rally since they returned to power.
After seizing control last year, the Taliban
promised a softer version of the harsh Islamist rule that characterized their
first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.
But many restrictions have already been imposed,
especially on women, to comply with the movement’s austere vision of Islam.
Tens of thousands of girls have been shut out of
secondary schools, while women have been barred from returning to many
government jobs.
Women have also been banned from travelling alone on
long trips and can only visit public gardens and parks in the capital on days
separate from men.
In May, the country’s supreme leader and chief of
the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, ordered women to fully cover themselves in
public, including their faces — ideally with an all-encompassing burqa.
Since the secondary school ban was announced in
March, many secret schools for these girls have sprung up across several provinces.
The UN and rights groups have repeatedly slammed the
Taliban government for imposing the restrictions on women.
These policies show a “pattern of absolute gender
segregation and are aimed at making women invisible in the society”, Richard
Bennett, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, told reporters
in Kabul during a visit in May.
Human Rights Watch on Thursday called on the Taliban
to “reverse their horrifying and misogynistic” decision to bar women from
education.
“This would send a message that the Taliban are
willing to reconsider their most egregious actions,” Fereshta Abbasi,
Afghanistan researcher at the rights group, said in a statement.
Some Afghan women initially pushed back against the
curbs, holding small protests.
But the Taliban soon rounded up the ringleaders, holding
them incommunicado while denying they had been detained.
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