Taliban Fire In The Air To Disperse Women Protesters Demanding Girls Be Allowed Back In School
The Taliban violently cracked down on a womens rights demonstration on Thursday in capital Kabul. A group of six women gathered outside a high school in eastern Kabul demanding the right for girls to return to secondary school. A foreign journalist was hit with a rifle and blocked from filming.
One-and-a-half months have passed since the Taliban captured power in Afghanistan, leaving the country in absolute pandemonium from which it is yet to recover.
One of the biggest worries the world had about Afghanistan under the Taliban is the future of Afghan women, who had started making their presence felt in the male-dominated society.
AFP
The hopes of 'inclusiveness' and women's rights came crashing down when the Taliban announced its all-male interim government, earlier this month and hinted that they are in no rush to have female employees back at work.
But a section of Afghan women are not giving up on their dreams and are continuing to fight, even if that means facing the Taliban gunmen.
On Thursday, in capital Kabul, the Taliban violently cracked down on a small women's rights demonstration, firing shots into the air and pushing back protesters.
AFP
According to AFP, A group of six women gathered outside a high school in eastern Kabul demanding the right for girls to return to secondary school.
Taliban disperse women's rights protesters with gunfire in Kabul.
¡ª AFP News Agency (@AFP) September 30, 2021
The Taliban fired shots into the air and pushed back protesters, @AFP journalists witnessedhttps://t.co/bCWamuWsUu pic.twitter.com/bH6rNGWaS9
The women unfurled a banner that read "Don't break our pens, don't burn our books, don't close our schools", before Taliban guards snatched it from them.
They pushed back the women protesters as they tried to continue with the demonstration, while a foreign journalist was hit with a rifle and blocked from filming.
A Taliban fighter also released a brief burst of gunfire into the air with his automatic weapon.
AFP
The demonstrators -- from a group called the "Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women Activists" -- took refuge inside the school.
Taliban guard Mawlawi Nasratullah, who led the group and identified himself as the head of special forces in Kabul, said the demonstrators "did not coordinate with security authorities regarding their protest".
AFP
"They have the right to protest in our country like every other country. But they must inform the security institutes before," he said.
In the past too the Taliban has used force and even gunshots to dispel protesters including women demanding their rights.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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