On Thursday, more than a dozen Taliban stormed into a news conference in western Kabul and arrested a female activist and four men.
The detained woman is Zarifa Yaqoubi, says five people who were at the press conference. The news conference was held to inaugurate the Afghanistan Women’s Movement for Equality and had been promoted on social media networks.
A female participant says that about 15 Taliban gunmen came to the conference venue at the beginning of the press conference and forcibly ejected all the journalists. The activists continued with their program without any media present.
The Taliban then re-entered the venue and arrested four men, tying their hands, the source tells Zan Times. “When Zarifa Yaqoubi tried to prevent the arrest of the four men, she was also arrested and thrown into a Ranger [military pick-up]” This female activist says that other participants at the event tried unsuccessfully to prevent the arrest of Yaqoubi.
“After the event, when we wanted to leave, the Taliban did not allow us to leave the conference,” another participant explains, confirming the arrests. “After about 20 minutes, four police women came to the place. They searched everyone. They were very rude with us and took our mobile phones and detained us there for an hour.”
“After taking our mobile phones, the Taliban also noted down the names of all participants and told us to come tomorrow along with husbands or fathers to the intelligence office to get your mobile phones,” the source adds. Several participants confirm the account with one explaining, “When they said to come tomorrow to the intelligence office, we got worried. We said, ‘Open our phones and take whatever you want.’ Then they took our names and asked each of us to open our phones and then checked them, one by one.”
Zarifa Yaqoubi, the female activist arrested at this news conference, had also participated at a demonstration in Shahr-e Naw Park on Monday, in which dozens of women demanded that females be allowed to participate in the social and political life of Afghanistan. They displayed their educational and professional degrees and certificates to emphasize that they have studied for years to be experts in their fields and to contribute to the development and enlightenment of the country.
Like Thursday’s press conference, the park protest ended when the Taliban forcibly broke it up. The regime has banned all protests and regularly monitors social media in order to quickly stop demonstrations by whatever means they deem necessary, including violence and arrests.
