Taliban terrorists on Thursday broke up a women’s rights demonstration and fired shots in the air while pushing away protesters from the scene, according to AFP journalists.
Six women gathered at a high school in Kabul to demand the right for girls to go back to secondary school after the Islamist group prohibited them from attending classes a few weeks ago, the outlet reported.
The women held a banner with the words “Do not break our pens, do not burn our books, do not close our schools” printed on it before Taliban guards took it away.
A member of the Taliban speaks with women protestors as another tries to block the view of the camera with his hand during a demonstration held outside a school in Kabul on September 30, 2021. (Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)
The guards pushed back the female protesters who were trying to continue their demonstration and a foreign journalist was reportedly hit with a rifle and stopped from filming the incident.
A Taliban fighter gestures asking photojournalists to stop covering a demonstration by women protestors in Kabul on September 30, 2021. (Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)
A member of the Taliban special forces pushes a journalist (L) covering a demonstration by women protestors outside a school in Kabul on September 30, 2021. (Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)
A Taliban member also released a burst of gunfire in the air using his automatic weapon, AFP journalists said.
The demonstrators with the group called the “Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women Activists” eventually took refuge inside the school building.
Members of the Taliban special forces stop a woman protestor from continuing a demonstration held outside a school in Kabul on September 30, 2021. (Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Taliban commander Mawlawi Nasratullah, who identified himself as the head of special forces in the city, claimed demonstrators “did not coordinate with security authorities regarding their protest.”
“They have the right to protest in our country like every other country. But they must inform the security institutes before,” he commented.
A Taliban commander speaks to the members of the media after they halted a demonstration by women protestors happening in front of a school in Kabul on September 30, 2021. (Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)
September 18 was the first day of school for secondary aged students in Afghanistan, but only boys and male teachers were allowed back in the classroom.
According to the Hindustan Times:
The United Nations said it was “deeply worried” for the future of girls’ schooling in Afghanistan. “It is critical that all girls, including older girls, are able to resume their education without any further delays. For that, we need female teachers to resume teaching,” the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF said.
Meanwhile, the Taliban recently shut women staff members out of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Kabul and renamed the agency the “Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.”
According to AFP, the Taliban has said it needs to establish the correct conditions before girls can go back into the classroom, “but many Afghans are sceptical,” the report concluded.