Status: 08.09.2021 5:15 p.m.
Women in Afghanistan have protested against the all-male interim government of the Taliban. Security forces beat them. Journalists were also mistreated.
Protests continue in Afghanistan – despite attempts by the militant Islamist Taliban to suppress them by force. There were at least two rallies by women in the capital, Kabul. They criticize the newly appointed interim government with the little-known mullah Mohammed Hassan Achund as head of government and that the cabinet consists only of men.
Lashes against demonstrators
At the demonstration in the Dascht-e Bartschi district in western Kabul, around 20 women shouted “A cabinet without women will fail”. They also held signs with slogans such as “Work, Education, Freedom” and “Why is the world watching in silence?”. The women pushed past several Taliban fighters who only tried briefly to stop them. At a second protest by women in the Kart-e Tschar district, however, the Taliban reacted harshly. One of them hit protesters with a whip several times, as seen on a video.
Several journalists from the daily “Etilatrus” were arrested and held for around two hours, as the newspaper’s editor announced on Twitter. At least two were badly mistreated. Imprints of cables and whips can be seen on the face and head. The largest local TV stations apparently stopped reporting on the protests in Kabul, which had been going on for three days. On Tuesday, the Taliban arrested a group of reporters and cameramen for several hours.
Taliban break their word
Afghan politicians and members of the opposition also criticized the transition cabinet set up by the Taliban. “There are no women and religious minorities in it,” wrote the well-known women’s rights activist Fausi Kufi on Twitter. When she first met representatives of the Taliban, she was told that there were no obstacles for women to become a minister or head of government. Now, however, exactly the opposite is true.
The National Resistance Front (NRF), which last fought against the Taliban in the Punjir province, called the new cabinet illegal. She again called for resistance to the Taliban. International organizations and other countries should not recognize the government until further notice.
International criticism of the government
The Taliban presented 33 members of the government on Tuesday – including not a single woman, no one from any other political group and no one from a Hasara minority. The United Nations said that lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan depended on “significant” participation by women and the bringing together of ethnic, religious and minority groups. The EU ambassador for Afghanistan, Andreas von Brandt, wrote on Twitter: “There is room for improvement in diversity, to say the least.” Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s neighbor Uzbekistan welcomed the transitional cabinet.