Afghan women shout slogans, hold banners during women’s rights protest in Kabul
Kabul:
Taliban forces sprayed pepper spray on a group of female protesters demanding the right to work and education in the Afghan capital on Sunday, three demonstrators told AFP.
Since taking over the country by force in August, Taliban officials have imposed crawling restrictions on Afghans, especially women.
An AFP correspondent said about 20 women gathered in front of Kabul University, chanting “equality and justice” and carrying banners of “Women’s Rights, Human Rights”.
Three female protesters told AFP that Taliban fighters, who later arrived at the scene in several vehicles, dispersed the protest.
“When we were near Kabul University, three Taliban vehicles came and the fighters of one of those vehicles used pepper spray on us,” one protester, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said.
“My right eye started burning. I told one of them ‘You are ashamed’, and then he pointed his gun at me.”
Two other protesters said one of the women had to be taken to the hospital after an allergic reaction to the eyes and face from the spray.
An AFP correspondent saw a fighter confiscating the mobile phone of a man who was filming the demonstration.
The radical Islamist group has banned disapproved protests and frequently intervened to forcefully break up rallies demanding women’s rights.
Taliban officials have barred female public sector workers from returning to work, many secondary schools still haven’t reopened for girls, and public universities are closed.
Long-distance travel has been banned for women with no close male relatives.
The authorities have also issued guidelines that bar television channels from telecasting serials featuring female actors.
Meanwhile, many women are living in hiding for fear of a regime notorious for human rights abuses during its first term in power between 1996-2001, before it was ousted by a US-led invasion.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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