Afghanistan: Women beaten for demanding their rights

“We want equal rights, we want women in government,” dozens of female protesters chanted as they marched down a street in Kabul on Wednesday.

A day earlier, the Taliban had announced their interim cabinet of ministers. There are no women in it, and they’ve also abolished the women’s affairs ministry.

“We cannot accept this, and that’s why we came out,” Sara (name changed) told the BBC. It was the second demonstration she was participating in over the past week.

“We were marching peacefully. Then I saw 4-5 vehicles with about 10 Taliban fighters in each of them, following us,” said Jia (name changed), another protester.

The women say they were stopped, lashed with whips, and beaten with batons that emit electric shocks.

“They struck my shoulder twice. I could feel pain all over my body. It still hurts and I can’t move my arm,” Jia said. “They also used a lot of bad words and abused us. It’s too shameful for me to repeat the names they called us.”

“We were all beaten. I was also hit. They told us to go home saying that’s where a woman’s place is,” said Sara. Her phone was knocked out of her hand by a Taliban fighter when she tried to film them stopping the protest.

The Taliban have said they’re committed to women’s rights, and are not against women being educated or having jobs.

But since they seized control on 15 August, they have asked all women, except those in the public health sector, to stay away from work, until the security situation improves.

Security was one of the reasons the group gave when they were in power in the 1990s to prevent women from working, and many like Sara fear this time will be no different.

She used to work as an adviser in a government department, and also ran her own business. She says her family fears for her life.

“They tell me not to go for protests. They [the Taliban] will kill you. I fought with my brother to attend the march on Wednesday. It’s important that we raise our voice. I’m not scared. I will keep going again and again and again, until they kill us. It is better to die once than die gradually.”

Jia is married and has four children, including a newborn baby. She says her family encourages her to protest. “The Taliban aren’t here for a few days. They’re here for the long run. We need to demand our rights, not just for us, but for our next generation, our children,” she said. “We know the Taliban will find us and might target us. But we don’t have a choice. We have to continue.”

During protests in Herat earlier this week, three people were killed. The Taliban were firing guns in the air to disperse crowds. There are many videos of the group’s fighters lashing protesters with whips.

Agencies