Twenty Afghan women protested the Taliban’s restrictions on Afghan women’s freedoms in Kabul, AFP reported.
Fundamentalist Islamists have slowly eroded women’s rights over the last 20 years, since the fall of their previous regime (1996-192001) since their return to power in August. “Education, it is my right!” Reopen schools “,” also shouted the demonstrators, who were often covered in veils and gathered before the Ministry of Education.
An AFP correspondent noted that they walked for a few hundred meter before being stopped by Taliban wearing civilian clothes who arrived to disperse their demonstration. After the march, Zholia Parsi, a participant, said that they wanted to read a statement from the Taliban but they wouldn’t permit it. She added that “They confiscated the cell phones of some girls and stopped us from taking photos or videos of our protest.”
The Taliban have placed a number of restrictions on civil society since their return to power. Many of these are intended to subjugate women to their fundamentalist view of Islam. They have made it difficult for women to work in public, limited their travel rights, and banned girls from high school and middle school.
This latest restriction dates back from May when the government issued an order, which was endorsed by Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. It made it mandatory for women to wear full-face veil in public.
According to the Taliban, they prefer the burqa (full veil that is blue and meshed at the eye level), but will accept other veil types that only reveal the eyes. The Taliban also believed that women should not leave home unless they have a compelling reason to do so. International outrage has resulted from these new measures.
The UN Security Council called for the Taliban to lift the restrictions on Friday. However, they rejected the request. They deemed the concerns “unfounded.” Afghan women have had new freedoms over the past 20 years, including the ability to return to school and apply for jobs in every sector of activity.
