Women in Afghanistan protest online. Will they take to streets on 15 August?
Women's rights in Afghanistan are being drastically curtailed by the authorities. 15 August marks the second year since the Taliban took control of the country.
On 15 August 2021, the Taliban seized Kabul and officially took power in Afghanistan. Since then, they have drastically and systematically restricted the rights of the country's female citizens in accordance with their fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and Sharia.
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Afghan women have been banned from attending secondary schools, colleges and universities for the last two years. They are also barred from most professions, including working for the United Nations and any NGOs. In July 2023 we wrote about the introduction of further restrictions, including the permanent closure of beauty salons, which were one of the few places where women could still meet freely on their own.
Afghan women continue to protest against Taliban rule
Afghan women have repeatedly taken to the streets to protest against such treatment, which the UN recently called "gender apartheid". Heather Barr, deputy director of women's rights at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters that "the images of women protesting on the streets have been the single most important factor in compelling the international community not to look away."
However, protests against the Taliban come with drastic repercussions. Maryam Marof Arwin, a former TV news anchor and founder of the Purple Saturdays Movement, an organisation of women opposed to the discriminatory law, told Reuters that dozens of activists in her movement have been arrested and imprisoned.
As Reuters reported, many women and organisations have therefore moved their protests indoors and online. Their testimonies, which still require great courage, can be found on Twitter (X) and Instagram, among others, but not TikTok, due to the fact it is banned in Afghanistan. One site that collects recordings of protesters and documents verified evidence of human rights issues in the country is afghanwitness.org.
Zholia Parsi, a women's rights activist, announced that women will take to the streets on 15 August, the second anniversary of the fall of Kabul. They will do so even though they will risk both their own safety and their future lives in doing so. The future the Taliban planned for them is unacceptable.
Source: Reuters
