25 Afghan Women Demand Education, Work, Defying Taliban in Kabul Protest

About 25 Afghan women protested in front of the Education Ministry in Kabul on Sunday against the Taliban government’s restrictions on women’s rights. Since seizing power throughout the country in August 2021 as US and allied countries withdrew their troops, the Taliban first promised a kinder, gentler version of the Islamist rule they imposed on the country from 1996 to 2001. But soon it became apparent that the gains women made over the past two decades would be eroded. Girls have been shut out of secondary schools, and women have been barred from returning to many government jobs. Women cannot travel alone, and public gardens and parks in the capital are open to men and women on separate days. The country’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, said earlier this month that women should stay home; if they go out in public, they must cover themselves from head to toe, including their faces. The women protesting for their rights – and thereby violating another restriction imposed by the Taliban – chanted slogans such as “Bread, work, freedom,” and “Education is my right! Reopen schools!” AFP reports that the protesters ended their rally after marching a few hundred meters and being confronted by plainclothes Taliban fighters. “We wanted to read out a declaration but the Taliban didn’t allow it,” said protester Zholia Parsi. “They took the mobile phones of some girls and also prevented us from taking photos or videos of our protest.”