According to the journalists, the Taliban violently suppressed a small women’s rights demonstration on Thursday, firing rounds into the air and driving protestors back.
A group of six ladies gathered outside a high school in eastern Kabul to demand that girls should be allowed to return to secondary education after being expelled earlier this month.
Before Taliban guards snatched it from them, the women unfurled a banner that read, “Don’t break our pens, don’t burn our books, don’t close our schools.”
Afghanistan In Kabul, the Taliban opened fire on women's rights protesters to dispersed them, barring journalists from covering the protests and pushing them back. What kind of Islam or Sharia is this to abuse women? pic.twitter.com/6bxeQGqweK
— Ihtesham Afghan (@IhteshamAfghan) September 30, 2021
Women protestors were pushed back as they attempted to continue the rally, while a foreign journalist was shot with a rifle and prevented from filming.
According to the journalists who were present there, a Taliban fighter fired a quick burst of bullets into the air with his automatic rifle.
The activists, who belonged to the “Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women Activists,” sought shelter inside the school.
The marchers “did not cooperate with security authorities on their protest,” according to Taliban guard Mawlawi Nasratullah, who headed the gathering and identified himself as the head of special forces in Kabul.
“They, like everyone else, have the right to protest in our nation. However, they must first notify the security institutes,” he stated.
Following the Taliban’s takeover of power, isolated gatherings with women at the lead were held in towns around the country, including in the western city of Herat, where two people were killed.
However, since the government issued an order prohibiting unlicensed demonstrations and threatening violators with “serious legal action,” protests have declined.
Girls have been barred from attending secondary school for almost two weeks.
The Taliban adhere to a rigid interpretation of sharia law that separates men and women and restricts women’s employment opportunities.
They claim that the necessary conditions must be in place before girls may return to school, but many Afghans remain skeptical.
