Twenty Afghan women demonstrated on Sunday, May 29, in Kabul to cries of ” bread, work, freedom to protest Taliban restrictions on women’s freedoms in Afghanistan.
Since their return to power last August, fundamentalist Islamists have gradually eroded the freedoms won by women over the past twenty years since the fall of their previous regime (1996-2001).
” Education is my right! Reopen the schools! “, also chanted the demonstrators, many of whom wore veils covering their faces and who gathered in front of the Ministry of Education. They walked for a few hundred meters before being stopped by Taliban in civilian clothes, who had come to disperse the demonstration, noted a correspondent for theAFP.
” We wanted to read a statement, but the Taliban did not allow it “, told theAFP after the walk a participant, Zholia Parsi. “ They took some girls’ cell phones and also stopped us from taking pictures or videos of our protest “, she added.
Restrictions that aim to further subjugate women
Since their return to power, the Taliban have imposed a series of restrictions on civil society, many of which are aimed at subjugating women to their fundamentalist conception of Islam. They have largely excluded women from public employment, they have restricts their right to moveand they banned girls’ access to middle and high school.
The latest restriction dates back to early May, when the government issued an edict, endorsed by the supreme leader of the Taliban and Afghanistan, Hibatullah Akhundzada, making it compulsory for women wearing the full veil in public. The Taliban have clarified that their preference was for the burqa, this integral veil most often blue and meshed at eye level, but that other types of veils revealing only the eyes would be tolerated. The Taliban also felt that unless the women had a pressing reason to go out, it was ” better for them to stay at home “.
►To read: Afghanistan: TV presenters appeared on Saturday with their faces uncovered
The indifference of the Taliban in the face of the indignation of the international community
These new measures aroused the indignation of the international community. On Friday, the Taliban rejected a call from the UN Security Council to reverse these restrictions, saying “ unfounded » the concerns expressed on these issues.
Over the past two decades, Afghan women had gained new freedoms, returning to school or applying for jobs in all industries, even as the country remained socially conservative.
►To listen: Women in Afghanistan: return to hell under the yoke of the Taliban
(with AFP)