The Taliban have arrested four women taking part in a protest held today in the capital Kabul against the group’s bans on women’s education, work, and individual freedom, sources among the protesters confirmed to KabulNow.
The detainees were identified as Yaqoot Mandegar, Malalai Hashemi, Roqia Saeei, and Fatema Mohammadi.
A group of women took to the streets in Kabul on Sunday chanting slogans for justice, freedom, and women’s rights in protest to the Taliban’s continued closure of secondary schools and universities for women and girls across the country.
They carried slogans which read “Afghan girls and women have been kept hostage,” and “Afghan women have been erased from the society” as they marched a street in Kabul until the Taliban forces dispersed the protest and arrested four of them.
The women expressed their frustration with the Taliban’s continued restrictive policies on women’s rights. Women and girls have been enduring the emotional and mental suffering imposed by the Taliban for over a year and a half due to the closure of girls’ schools, one of the protesters told KabulNow.
Accusing the United Nations of remaining silent over the issue, these women protesters called on the United Nations and the international community to support the women and girls in Afghanistan.
In March 2022, the Taliban banned secondary schooling for girls and in December of the same year they prohibited women and girls from university studies and as well as work for NGOs.
Despite the Taliban’s heavy crackdown on protests, women continued to stage protests against the group’s restrictive policies on women in many provinces, particularly in Kabul. The Taliban, however, have always violently suppressed these protests and detained some of the protesters.
