By Rukhshana Media
In response to the Taliban’s restriction on women’s rights, a group of women gathered in an indoor space in Sayed Khel district of central Parwan province on Tuesday, calling on the Taliban to respect women’s rights to education, work, and freedom, according to an organizer.
“We demand the Islamic Emirate to [respect] our rights to education, work, and freedom,” Shila Bawar, an organizer of the protest said in a video of the gathering shared with Rukhshana Media.
“We demand the international community to not recognize the Taliban until they recognize [women], until they respect women’s rights to work, education, and freedom,” Bawar told Rukhshana Media in a phone interview.
In the most recent crackdown on women’s rights, the Taliban’s Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has banned out-of-province travel for women without a Mahram, a male chaperone. The ministry accepts no exception for widows and divorced women.
“The women who lost their husbands in decades long war, they don’t have Mahram, how should they bring food for their children? If they can’t work in society, how can they survive? for how long can they beg?” Bawar asked in the videos, demanding the international community to pressure the Taliban into respecting women’s rights.
“We, the women and girls of Parwan have not remained silent… we raised our voice against a group whom we are their main problem. While we are living under the poverty line, the statements of Islamic Emirate are about women’s hair and faces,” reads a statement issued by the protesters.
It has been more than four months since women are organizing protests in different parts of Afghanistan, mainly in the capital, Kabul, asking the Taliban to respect their rights and the international community to not recognize the Taliban. The confrontation often ends with the Taliban beating and threatening protesters and arresting the journalists, which is why most women’s protests are pushed indoors.
