Afghanistan: Women’s protests keep pressure on Taliban, which responds again with force
- Fighters whip demonstrators and detain journalists, as rallies put the new caretaker government to the test
- The interim Cabinet is composed exclusively of Taliban stalwarts and apparatchiks, with no women or former political figures and few minorities
After being completely shut out from the Taliban‘s new government, women kept up the pressure on Afghanistan‘s new rulers with a number of protests Wednesday, at least one of which was violently broken up by Taliban fighters who whipped some of the demonstrators and detained local journalists.
The protests come one day after the Taliban announced an interim Cabinet composed exclusively of the group’s stalwarts and apparatchiks, with no women or former political figures and few minorities.
Although the rallies were small, with only a few dozen women in each case, they put the new government to the test after it explicitly declared that taking part in – and covering – protests that were not cleared beforehand with the administration to be illegal.
They also illustrated the larger reality that, though the Taliban may now stand virtually unchallenged on the battlefield, the group faces a more complicated task in getting fearful Afghans – especially women and those living in cities – to accept its rule.
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The protesters assembled Wednesday at 8am near a bank on the main thoroughfare bisecting Dasht-e-Barchi, a southwestern Kabul neighbourhood dominated by the minority Hazara community.
They stood in a shallow semicircle and raised simple printed signs in Dari and English. One of them read “Why is the world watching us silently and cruelly?” with emphasis in red marker on the “silently” and “cruelly”.
