On Tuesday, October 18, the Taliban dispersed the gathering of female protesters in Kabul by threatening to shoot them. The women were demonstrating against the expulsion of Hazara students from Kabul University and a university dormitory, sources tell Zan Times. Those women had been demonstrating against the ongoing genocidal violence aimed at Hazaras in Afghanistan.
Around 40 female students marched in front of the university on Tuesday carrying placards inscribed with slogans, including “We are expelled from the university because of reading and seeing” and “Genocide is a crime, silence is treason.”
“The Taliban suppressed the gathering of female students with violence and threats and dispersed them in an hour,” says one of the protesters, who did not want to be named. “The Taliban took the phones of some of the girls and deleted all the photos and videos they had of the protests, Nisa Rahimi, one of the protesters, tells Zan Times. “They used violence, and threatened to shoot protesters.”
In videos shared with Zan Times, one of the protesters says, “The Taliban expelled more than 50 female students from the dormitory for the crime of wanting to raise their voice against genocide and the Taliban’s policies.”
This is just the latest women’s gathering to be severely suppressed by the Taliban, including demonstrations in provinces such as Herat, Balkh, Bamyan, and Ghazni .
In January, Human Rights Watch documented the Taliban’s use of harsh tactics to crush Afghan women’s protests. “The Taliban have rolled back the rights of women and girls, including blocking access to education and employment for many. Women’s rights activists have staged a series of protests; the Taliban has responded by banning unauthorized protests,” stated Human Rights Watch.
A Zan Times investigative report shows that in Mazar-e-Sharif, the Taliban beat, abducted, tortured, imprisoned, and killed women for their roles in peaceful protests — and afterward suppressed information about the women’s fate and threatened their families in an effort to silence them.
