About forty women chanting “Bread, work and freedom” marched in front of the Ministry of Education on Saturday August 13, 2022, before a group of Taliban fighters dispersed them by firing into the air in bursts. WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP Shots in the air and beatings with rifle butts: the Taliban violently dispersed, on Saturday August 13, in Kabul, a demonstration of women for the right to work and education, almost a year after the return power of the Islamists in Afghanistan. Around 40 women chanting ‘Bread, work and freedom’ marched past the Education Ministry before a group of Taliban fighters dispersed them with gunfire in the air, some five minutes into the march . The demonstrators carried a banner that read “August 15 is a black day”, in reference to the date of the capture of Kabul in 2021 by the Taliban. “Justice, justice. We are fed up with ignorance,” they also chanted. Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Afghanistan: the Taliban order descends on the last islands of freedom for girls Taliban armed with assault rifles blocked a crossroads in front of the demonstrators and began shooting in the air for long seconds. One of them simulated a shot aimed at the demonstrators, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP). Some protesters then took refuge in nearby shops, where they were chased and beaten with rifle butts by the Taliban. They also confiscated their cell phones and beat journalists. Demonstrations for women’s rights have been increasingly rare in the capital, especially after the arrest at the beginning of the year of organizers of these rallies, some of whom remained in detention for several weeks. Obligation to wear the full veil in public Since the return to power of the Taliban in August 2021, fundamentalist Islamists have gradually reduced the freedoms won by women over the past twenty years, since the fall of their previous regime (1996-2001). They have imposed a series of restrictions on civil society, many of which are aimed at subjugating women to their fundamentalist conception of Islam. They have largely excluded them from government jobs, restricted their right to travel, and barred girls from middle and high school. The latest restriction dates back to May, when the government issued an edict, endorsed by the supreme leader of the Taliban and Afghanistan, Haibatullah Akhundzada, making it compulsory for women to wear the full veil in public. The Taliban have clarified that their preference was for the burqa, this integral veil most often blue and meshed at eye level, but that other types of veil revealing only the eyes would be tolerated. Read also: In Afghanistan, TV presenters are finally covering their faces The Taliban also felt that unless women had a pressing reason to go out, it was “better for them to stay at home”. All these measures “describe a model of total sexual segregation and aim to make women invisible in society”, declared in Kabul in May the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett. Over the past two decades, Afghan women had acquired new freedoms, returning to school or applying for jobs in all sectors of activity, even if the country remained socially conservative. The World with AFP
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Taliban fire into the air in Kabul to break up a women’s protest, nearly a year after they returned to power in Afghanistan
