Two days earlier than the Taliban marks the primary anniversary of Afghanistan takeover, fighters of the hardline group beat ladies protesters and fired within the air on Saturday as they dispersed a rally within the capital metropolis of Kabul. Almost 40 ladies marched and gathered outdoors the training ministry constructing chanting “bread, work and freedom” earlier than Taliban fighters broke them up by firing within the air, information company AFP reported. Some ladies protesters who took shelter in close by retailers had been chased and thrashed by the fighters with their rifle butts.
Some journalists masking the stir – the primary ladies’s rally in a number of months – had been additionally reportedly crushed by the fighters.
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The ladies protesters carried a banner that learn – ‘August 15 is a black day’ – as they demanded rights to work and political participation. Zholia Parsi, one of many organisers of the demonstration, advised AFP that Taliban fighters tore their banners and in addition confiscated cell phones of many ladies. The demonstrators chanted: “Justice…we’re fed up with ignorance”, with many not carrying face veils.
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Regardless of promising a softer model of their inflexible rule throughout the Nineties, Taliban have imposed a number of restrictions, particularly on ladies’s rights, ever because it got here to energy final 12 months on August 15. 1000’s of younger ladies have been out of secondary colleges as they proceed to stay shut, whereas many ladies have been prohibited from returning to a number of authorities jobs.
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Taliban have additionally banned ladies from travelling alone on lengthy journeys and allowed them to solely go to parks and public gardens in Kabul on days completely different from males.
Moreover, in Might, Afghanistan’s supreme chief and Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered ladies to utterly cowl themselves in public, together with their faces.
The United Nations and different rights teams have constantly lashed out on the regime for imposing curbs on ladies. In Might, UN particular rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, advised reporters in Kabul that the insurance policies of the Islamist group present a “sample of absolute gender segregation and are geared toward making ladies invisible within the society”.
Not simply ladies, Afghanistan has been drowning in poverty ever because the Taliban took management. The state of affairs has escalated to new ranges triggered by drought, and inflation since Russia’s offensive in its former Soviet neighbour Ukraine.
