Taliban fighters beat female protesters and fired into the air on Saturday as they violently dispersed a rare rally in the Afghan capital, days before the first anniversary of the hardline Islamists’ return to power.
Since taking 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 weapons into the air, a correspondent reported AFP.
Some protesters who took refuge in nearby shops were chased and beaten by Taliban fighters with the butts of their rifles.
Demonstrators carried a banner that read “August 15 is a black day” as they demanded rights to work and political participation.
“Justice! Justice! We are fed up with ignorance”, they chanted, many without veils.
Taliban fighters fired into the air and attacked the protesters to break up the rally. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images
“Unfortunately, the Taliban 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 many girls’ mobile phones.”
But Munisa Mubariz promised to continue fighting for women’s rights.
“If the Taliban want to silence this voice, it is not possible. We will protest from our home,” he said.
Some journalists covering the demonstration, the first by women in months, were also beaten by Taliban fighters, an AFP correspondent reported.
While Taliban authorities have permitted and promoted some anti-US demonstrations, they have denied permission for any women’s demonstrations since returning to power.
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After taking control last year, the Taliban promised a softer version of the harsh Islamist rule that characterized their first period in power from 1996 to 2001.
But many restrictions, especially on women, have already been imposed to comply with the movement’s austere vision of Islam.
Tens of thousands of girls have been excluded from secondary schools, while women have been barred from many government jobs.
Women have also been banned from traveling alone on long journeys and can only visit public gardens and parks in the capital on separate days from men.
In May, the country’s supreme leader and Taliban chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada, ordered women to cover themselves fully in public, including their faces, ideally with a burqa.
Since the middle school ban was announced in March, many secret schools for these girls have sprung up in various provinces.
The UN and rights groups have repeatedly condemned the Taliban government for imposing the restrictions on women.
These policies show a “pattern of absolute gender segregation and aim to make women invisible in society,” Richard Bennett, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul during a visit in May.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch called on the Taliban to “reverse their horrific and misogynistic” decision to ban women from education.
“This would send a message that the Taliban are willing to reconsider their most egregious actions,” Fereshta Abbasi, the rights group’s Afghanistan researcher, said in a statement.
At first, some Afghan women pushed back the sidewalks, making small protests.
But the Taliban soon rounded up the leaders, holding them incommunicado while denying they had been arrested.