NEWS CENTER – Women chant slogans in a Kabul neighborhood demanding either rights for all or none of us. About 20 young Afghan women, wearing headscarves and some masks, were demanding the right to study at the university. Some of the women were arrested by the police, two of them were later released, but many have not yet been released. Protests by women in Afghanistan have been few and far between after the arrest of prominent activists earlier this year, and women who participate in such events may face the risk of arrest or violence.
Today’s demonstration was scheduled to be held in front of the campus of Kabul University, but was changed due to the deployment of a large number of armed security forces around the university.
In a short message on Tuesday evening, Afghan Higher Education Minister Nada Mohammad Nadeem ordered all public and private universities in the country to suspend women’s education until further notice. The decision not only shocked the people of the country, but also caused an international reaction.
The Taliban regime’s pressure on women has increased dramatically since coming to power, with women being excluded from most public jobs and those who managed to stay in their jobs being paid low wages to quit.
Meanwhile, women are no longer allowed to travel without a male family member and must wear a burqa or patch when leaving the house. Last month, the Taliban banned women from parks, gyms and public swimming pools, and the latest decision was to ban women from university.
After returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban promised to show greater flexibility, but soon reverted to its very strict interpretation of sharia law that characterized its rule between 1996 and 2001.
