KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban intelligence agents detained the brother of woman protester Parisa Mubariz in northern Takhar province, according to the protester.
In a message to KabulNow, Mubariz, who is currently living outside the country, said that the Taliban arrested her brother because of her activism, and he has been in Taliban detention for over 50 days.
According to Mubariz, since her brother’s detention, she and her family have been unaware of his fate, as the Taliban authorities do not provide any information.
Mubariz leads the Takhar Women’s Movement, a group established after the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, which protests the regime’s restrictive measures against women and girls in the country.
She is also the head of Smart Home School, an initiative secretly established in Takhar and Badakhshan to provide education for women and girls who have been deprived of this right by the Taliban.
In February of last year, Taliban agents arrested Mubariz and her brother from their home in Takhar province due to her protests against their policies. They were released from Taliban detention the following day after providing a guarantee that she would not protest again.
Since taking control of Afghanistan three years ago, the Taliban has worked to strip away the hard-earned freedoms of women. Under Taliban rule, women are prohibited from attending school beyond sixth grade, pursuing higher education, working, going to parks, gyms, beauty salons, traveling, and many other activities.
In response to the Taliban’s relentless restrictions on women’s rights, Afghan women and girls have organized both indoor and outdoor protest rallies over the past three years, many of which have faced harsh crackdowns by the Taliban. Since then, dozens of women protesters, activists, and in some cases their family members have been detained and tortured.
