Taliban arrest two women’s rights activists, whereabouts currently unknown

By Rukhshana Media

The Taliban arrested two women’s rights activists on Wednesday after they marched at the front of a protest several days earlier, activists told Rukhshana Media.

Tamana Zaryab Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimkhel were arrested late on Wednesday in Kabul after the January 16 protest, according to four women’s rights activists who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Sunday demonstration was organized in protest against the killing and disappearance of women under the Taliban. The women also protested against the Taliban’s compulsory dress code for women that they wear a hijab at all times. 

One protestor wore a white burqa with splashes of red that looked like blood, designed to represent the killing of women since the Taliban took over. In a video posted on social media, one woman removed the burqa and threw it on the ground. Other female protesters stepped on it, chanting “no to the mandatory hijab!” 

One of the activists said Parwana Ibrahimkhel, 23, a former journalist, and her brother-in-law, were arrested after a former government employee invited them to visit him. 

According to activists, the Taliban stormed the residence of Tamana Zaryab Paryani, a women’s rights activist in the Afghan capital, late on Wednesday. 

In a video Paryani herself shared with the Afghan site Amaj News, she appears distraught, screaming for help and pleading with the Taliban soldiers on the other side of her door to go away and come back tomorrow instead.

“Help, please help. The Taliban have come to my house. My sisters are at home,” Paryani shouts desperately. She also pleads with the Taliban, “Please come tomorrow, we can talk tomorrow. I can’t open the door with the girls in my room. We can’t open the door.” 

Paryani and Ibrahimkhel could not be reached by Rukhshana Media despite repeated attempts. A Taliban spokesman did not respond to Rukhshana Media’s request for comment about the arrests. 

Yesterday, New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report calling attention to the Taliban’s use of “harsh tactics to crush Afghan women’s rights protests.” 

The report, which investigated the Taliban’s suppression of women’s protests in the Afghan capital on January 16, warned about the Taliban’s infiltration of activists’ communications.

Two other activists also said the Taliban had visited their homes, asking about their whereabouts. 

“They came to my house, they asked my children where I was,” one of the activists told Rukhshana Media. 

“The talk of amnesty was all a lie. They want to arrest all the girls,” she said, adding that she had fled her home hours before the Taliban could catch her.  

The four women’s activists who spoke to Rukhshana Media said they had changed their residence, fearing arrest for participating in protests.

On Monday, a group of UN Human Rights experts warned that the Taliban are institutionalizing “systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls” in Afghanistan. 

The Taliban has escalated repression of dissent, curtailing civic freedoms, and systematically violating women’s rights when the country is marching towards famine and starvation.