According to a number of women activists in Kabul, the United Nations has remained silent in the face of Taliban violence and restrictions on women. They believe that the UN must break its silence and press the Taliban to end violence against women.
On the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November), a number of women proclaimed in a gathering that violence against women in Afghanistan has increased unprecedentedly under the Taliban regime. The Justice and Freedom Movement for Afghan Women stated that the purpose of this gathering was to stop violence against women.
The organizers of the gathering asked for the release of women’s rights and civil society activists and demanded that girls’ schools at the secondary level should be reopened immediately.
The protesting women called upon the United Nations to investigate the mysterious murders of women and girls whose bodies are found on a daily basis and to put pressure on the Taliban to remove restrictions against women.
Shamayel Tawana Nasiri, one of the organizers, told Farkhunda News that since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, violence against women has greatly increased, and during the past one and a half years, women are deprived of their rights, participation in political and social spheres, and their citizenship rights. Women are not even allowed to choose their own clothes.
As per Nasiri, the United Nations and the international community have always remained silent in the face of Taliban violence and have not shown any serious reaction to condemn such crimes. She calls upon the United Nations, the international community, and countries that adhere to gender equality to break their silence on these crimes and to propose practical solutions to end human rights violations in Afghanistan.
Basira Begzad, an activist, also expressed her concerns about the violations of human rights in Afghanistan. She believes that history will belong to the women of Afghanistan and they will not remain silent in the face of any violence against women. Afghan women, according to her, will fight until the realization of the freedom of women and an Afghanistan free from violence against women.
Women have always been subjected to violence in Afghanistan, however, restrictions and violations of women’s rights have increased unprecedently during the one and a half years of Taliban rule which has resulted in protests by women activists against these violations. In these protests, the women activists have not only achieved their aims; but on the contrary, they have been imprisoned, tortured, and forcefully dispersed. Recently, Zarifa Yaqubi, Farhat Popalzi, Humaira Yusuf, Parveen Sadat, and other activists were arrested by the Taliban and the fate of some of them is still unknown.
Moreover, In the latest series of restrictions on women, the Taliban’s Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has banned women from entering amusement parks, gyms, and even
public baths.
Khatira Rahimi