The Taliban fired into the air to suppress a small demonstration of women demanding that Afghanistan’s new leaders respect their rights, an AFP reporter on site said.
Six women protesting outside a secondary school in eastern Kabul demanded that the girls be returned to the secondary schools that the new Afghan government closed to them in early September.
Afghan women held a demonstration under the slogan “Don’t break our pens, don’t burn our books, don’t close our schools,” AFP reports.
The soldiers dispersed the protest with shots in the air and did not allow foreign journalists to cover the event.
“Demonstration not agreed”
Mavlavi Nasratullah, posing as the commander of special forces in Kabul, argued that the demonstration “was not coordinated with the security forces.”
“They have the right to protest, like in any other country, but they must first report this to the appropriate authorities,” he added.
Independent protests erupted in many cities in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power in Kabul on August 15. However, their number declined after it was announced that any unsanctioned protest would be “severely punished.”
Opening a girls’ college?
Earlier in September, the Taliban pledged to reopen high schools and colleges for girls, but some Afghans are skeptical about the promises.
– This was the last time (1996 – 2001 – PAP). They repeated that they would allow us to return to work, but this did not happen, ”one of the Afghan women professors said in an interview with a French agency.
Classes in Afghan schools were suspended in mid-August after the Taliban returned to power and the pro-Western government collapsed. They have previously been renewed for boys and girls in primary schools.