To cries of “Woman, life, Freedom”, some 25 women, headscarves, demonstrated for about fifteen minutes on the road opposite the Iranian embassy, before being dispersed by shots fired in the air by the Taliban posted in front of the building, noted AFP journalists.
The Taliban also tried to beat the demonstrators with rifle butts, according to the same source.
“Iran is rising, now it’s our turn”, “From Kabul to Iran, say no to dictatorship!”, chanted the demonstrators, behind banners that the Taliban tore from their hands.
The women, some of whom had hidden their faces behind sunglasses and surgical masks, picked up the debris of their banners to make balls of paper and throw them at the Taliban facing them.
The latter also ordered journalists to delete videos and photos of the demonstration.
Demonstrations have been taking place every night in Iran since September 16, when young Mahsa Amini died in hospital, three days after she was arrested in Tehran by morality police for breaking a strict dress code for women. in the Islamic Republic of Iran, who must cover their hair in public.
“We are here to show our support and our solidarity with the Iranian people and the women victims of the Taliban in Afghanistan,” said a protest organizer, on condition of anonymity.
Since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021, several sporadic demonstrations by women have been organized in the capital and other cities of the country, despite their ban, whether against the loss of their jobs or to demand the right to work. .
Some of them were forcefully repressed and the activists who had called for the rallies were arrested by the Taliban.
– Very strict rules –
After 20 years of war and the departure of the American army from Afghanistan, the country’s new leaders have indeed imposed very strict rules on the conduct of women, especially in public life, ordering women to wear a full veil. in public, preferably the burqa.
The dreaded Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice quickly replaced that of Women’s Affairs and notably ordered the separation of women and men in Kabul’s public parks.
Islamist fundamentalists have also closed secondary schools for girls in most provinces. They ordered women to cover themselves fully in public, ideally with a burqa.
On September 10, dozens of young girls demonstrated in the east of Afghanistan, in Garde, after seeing the closure of their schools, which had reopened a week earlier under pressure from students and tribal leaders.
On Tuesday, a United Nations report denounced these “severe restrictions” on women’s rights, in particular the ban on secondary education, and called on the Taliban to “immediately reverse this decision”.
The lifting of restrictions on women’s rights is an essential condition for the recognition of the Taliban government, the international community has insisted. So far, no country has recognized the Islamist government.
