Taliban Fire Warning Shots On Afghan Female Protesters
By Ayaz Gul
Witnesses say Taliban security forces in Afghanistan fired warning shots Tuesday to disperse a group of female activists in Kabul protesting restrictions placed on women in the country.
The women marched through the streets of the Afghan capital toward the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which enforces Islamic law as interpreted by the Taliban. Protesters held banners reading, “We are tired of discrimination” along with, “We are the voice of hungry people.”
Other banners read, “We women wake up and hate discrimination,” and “Why have you closed schools?” Protesters demanded work, food and education.
The protest comes two days after the ministry issued travel curbs on women across Afghanistan, further curtailing their rights. The new rules limit a woman’s ability to travel farther than 72 kilometers unless accompanied by a close male relative. They also require taxi drivers to offer rides only to women wearing an Islamic hijab or a headscarf and to refrain from playing music in their vehicles.
The government has allowed schoolboys to return to classes but girls across many Afghan provinces are still waiting for permission to do so and most women have been prevented from returning to work.
Last month, the Taliban’s ministry ordered Afghan channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring actresses, and female news anchors to wear hijabs while on the air.
The ultraconservative group regained power in August and named an all-male interim Cabinet to govern the conflict-torn country in line with the group’s strict interpretation of Islam, despite pledging not to bring back the harsh polices of their previous regime from 1996 to 2001.
When the Taliban were last in power, girls were not allowed to attend school and women were barred from work as well as education. The then-Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or the morals police, had been accused of serious human rights abuses, leading to Afghanistan’s isolation from the world.
The United States and the global community at large have not recognized the new Taliban government. They are refusing to open direct political engagement with the Islamist group until it ensures respect for human rights, especially those of women, runs the country inclusively and cuts ties with transnational terrorists.
The lack of government legitimacy has hampered the flow of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, where years of war, drought and poverty have left nearly 23 million people with acute food shortages and in need of urgent relief.
Afghan women protest against new limitations imposed by Taliban
Several dozen Afghan women on Tuesday protested against the new directives of the Taliban putting limitations on their movement.
In recent days the Islamic Emirate Ministry of Virtue and Vice issued a new directive on women's travel, saying the women who are travelling long distances by road should be accompanied by a male relative, and they should wear a hijab, to cover their head and face.
The directive also banned playing music in the vehicles, reported Tolo News.
"Our forces told drivers and people to not play and listen to music, music is not allowed in the Islamic religion," said Mawlawi Mohammad Sadeq Akef, a spokesman of the Ministry of Virtue and Vice.
Women protestors said that the Islamic Emirate is keeping women away from society by imposing limitations and called for their rights to education, employment and social freedom to be honoured, reported Tolo News.
They used the slogans "we are the voice of hungry people" and "we are awake, we hate discrimination."
"How can we find a relative to go outside in urgent moments? They said 'we are not responsible for your food,' so pay our salaries and we can eat, we are not the women of two decades ago, we will not be silent," said Wida, a protestor, reported Tolo News.
The Islamic Emirate should not remove women from society, they said. "We gathered to raise voices against restrictions imposed on women; our schools are closed, they took away working opportunities, now they ordered us not to go out of our homes alone, they are talking about the rights described by Islam. Does Islam order that a nation should be hungry, does Islam say to forbid girls from education?" said Shayesta, a protestor.
The protestors called on the international community to not ignore Afghan women, reported Tolo News.
"We are half of the society, we are human, we have the right to education and to work, I ask the international community to not recognize this government," said Zahra, a protestor.
The protest of Afghan women did not last a long time and the Islamic Emirate's forces fired into the air to disperse the protesters.
Meanwhile, the Taliban officials said that women can have rights based on Islamic regulations.
"The Islamic Emirate supreme leader, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, issued a decree on women which covers all (aspects of) women's lives," said Bilal Karimi, Deputy spokesman of Islamic Emirate.
(ANI)
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First published: 29 December 2021, 11:05 IST
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