Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 19, 2021
A group of Afghan women staged a protest in the capital, Kabul, on September 19, to demand the right to work and study.
Videos shared by local media show a group of nearly two dozen women gathering in front of what was until recently the Women’s Affairs Ministry, chanting “women’s rights and human rights.”
Some were holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life. “A society in which women are not active is [a] dead society,” one sign read.
The protest lasted for about 10 minutes. The women left after a verbal confrontation with an unidentified man.
In recent days, the new Taliban-led government issued several decrees rolling back the rights of girls and women.
Afghan girls were excluded from returning to secondary school on September 18, after the Taliban-led government ordered only boys and male teachers to return to the classroom.
Primary schools had already reopened, with boys and girls attending separate classes and some female teachers returning to work.
On September 19, the interim mayor of Kabul told female employees in the city government to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men.
Last week, the Taliban shut down the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” and tasked with enforcing Islamic law.
Since the Taliban took power in Kabul, Afghan women held several days of protests across the capital and other cities in which they demanded the hard-line Islamists respect their human rights. The protests were violently broken up by Taliban fighters.
Based on reporting by AP and dpa
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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