Afghan women rare protests on International Women’s Day

• Afghan women staged rare demonstrations on International Women’s Day following a crackdown by Taliban authorities.
• Activists from the Purple Saturday group reported that women were demanding the lifting of restrictions imposed by the Taliban government.
• The UNAMA urged the Taliban government to lift restrictions on women and girls.

On Friday, small groups of Afghan women staged rare demonstrations in private spaces to commemorate International Women’s Day, following a crackdown by Taliban authorities that drove activists away from the streets. Since reclaiming power in August 2021, Taliban authorities have enforced a strict interpretation of Islam, with women facing the harshest restrictions labeled as “gender apartheid” by the United Nations.

Women have been excluded from public life, prevented from traveling without a male relative, prohibited from various occupations, secondary education, and universities, as well as from accessing parks, fairs, and gyms.

Activists from the Purple Saturday group reported that several provinces saw gatherings of women demanding the lifting of restrictions imposed by the Taliban government. In northern Takhar province, activists circulated images showing seven women holding papers that obscured their faces, with messages reading “Rights, Justice, and Freedom.” A demonstrator, whose face was covered, expressed in a video, “Our silence and fear is the biggest weapon of the Taliban.”

In Balkh province, several women held up signs that said, “Don’t give the Taliban a chance,” in front of a banner reading “Save Afghanistan Women.” Additionally, on Thursday, around 20 women gathered at an office in northern Mazar-i-Sharif city for an event organized by the Afghanistan Association of the Blind.

“The gates of schools, universities, and offices should be opened for all women,” said one attendee, who remained anonymous for security reasons, during the meeting.

“It is very painful that a woman has no value in our society today. She cannot use any of her rights.”

“Women make up half of human society as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, and teachers. The holy religion of Islam is not against women’s work and education,” another added.

On Thursday, the Independent Coalition of Afghanistan Women’s Protest Movement issued a statement demanding “immediate and serious action from the international community against the clear violation of human rights and obvious crimes the Taliban are committing against Afghan women.”

Additionally, on Friday, the UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, urged the Taliban government to lift restrictions on women and girls, stating that failing to do so risked “further pushing the country into deeper poverty and isolation.”

“The space for Afghan women and girls continues to shrink at an alarming pace and with it Afghanistan’s prospects to escape a vicious cycle of war, poverty, and isolation,” said Alison Davidian, Special Representative for UN Women in Afghanistan, in a statement.

On Friday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated in an interview with Tolo News that the Taliban government was committed to women’s rights within the framework of Islam, dismissing such international criticism as propaganda.

Despite this, women have sporadically protested against rules imposed by the Taliban authorities, but often in small groups and indoors, fearing reprisals after several activists were detained for months.

The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, urged the Taliban government to “immediately and unconditionally release all those who have been arbitrarily detained for defending human rights, especially the rights of women and girls.”

In the past, security forces have dispersed street protests in Afghanistan by firing guns into the air, including during a demonstration last summer after beauty salons were shut down.

Additionally, last March, about 20 women staged a rare protest in the streets of Kabul for International Women’s Day.

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