By: Rukhshana Media
A number of women dressed in traditional Afghan clothes staged a protest in a Kabul park on Monday, May 9, against the Taliban’s new decree on mandatory hijab.
Their dress, which was traditional but did not conform to the Taliban’s strict requirements, was an act of defiance.
The Taliban’s leader purportedly issued a new decree last week that required women to wear a strict form of hijab, threatening that any failure to comply would result in punishment for male members of the offending women’s families.
The protesting women, who introduced themselves as members of the Women’s Movement for Justice and Freedom, chanted slogans against the Taliban’s hijab mandate.
Arifa Batool Fatimi, one of the protesters, told Rukhshana Media that they are protesting to say no to the Taliban’s decree.
The protestors said the decree was an interference in the private affairs of women and stressed that Afghan women already wore the Islamic hijab and that wearing the Taliban-mandated form of hijab was not part of their culture.
The protesters read a statement highlighting a range of severe restrictions that the Taliban have on women since claiming power violently in August last year.
The statement added that the forced Hijab is an insult to the Muslim people of Afghanistan because it implied that Afghan women did not already observe their religion. They said they would not accept imposing one of the tribal cultures on all Afghan women by any means.
The statement termed the new decree as cruel and called on the Afghan people – especially intellectuals, human rights and civil society activists and cultural figures – not to remain silent and support Afghan women’s struggles.
The statement called on the international community and human rights organizations to pressure the Taliban to end their oppression of Afghan women.
The statement also called on all Afghan girls and women not to give in to the Taliban and to continue to use their traditional clothing and usual Islamic hijab.
