Taliban crack down on women’s protests against university ban for girls
Kabul, Dec 22 (EFE).- The Taliban on Thursday cracked down in Kabul on a demonstration by women, especially students and social activists, against the recent decision to ban university education for girls in the country.
Scores of demonstrators shouted slogans, such as “All or none” and “We want equal opportunity in education” in the Debori area of the Afghan capital to protest against “the cruel decision of the Taliban government,” the march’s organizer Basira Hussaini told EFE.
However, their march ended abruptly as “the Taliban security forces, along with their female police officers, violently dispersed our protest and they tortured and detained some of us,” Hussaini added.
Several protesters shared videos on social media in which they accused the security forces of “attacking” them and detaining several others.
This incident comes a day after female students found themselves barred from entering universities by the security forces following a Taliban ban.
This recent move by the fundamentalists was strongly criticized by several countries and international organizations, apart from former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Kabul just before the Taliban stormed the capital in August 2021.
“I have said many times, and I will say it again: if a girl becomes literate, she will change the next five generations. If a girl remains uneducated, it will ruin five generations,” Ghani tweeted overnight.
The Taliban order is the latest in a series of restrictions on women by fundamentalists since coming to power, such as banning teenage girls from attending school, segregation of men and women in public places, making it mandatory for women to wear the veil in public and be accompanied by a male relative on long journeys.
Even though the fundamentalists promised last year to respect women’s rights in order to gain international recognition, the reality of women in Afghanistan is increasingly similar to the time under the previous Taliban regime (1996-2001), when they were totally excluded from public life without any possibility to study or work. EFE
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