Several women in Parwan province have called on the international community not to recognize the Taliban as a government in Afghanistan in protest of the Taliban’s policy towards women.
Today (Tuesday,4 January 2022), these women gathered in a closed place to protest and call on the international community not to recognize the Taliban because they have abandoned the basic issues of governance and have issued statements only against “women’s hair and face”.
These female protesters issued declarations mentioning depriving women and girls of the right to educate and work, saying that “women have been victims of gender discrimination.
Women protesters in Parwan have also stressed that the Taliban want to make women silent, but women continue their resistance against the Taliban and their civil protests: “We, the women and girls of Parwan are not indifferent, we stand by women protesters in Kabul and raise our voices and shield our chests.”
The activists said the Taliban had no concerns about governance: “We are standing up to a group whose main problem is women, not providing services to the people and managing poverty, unemployment, and insecurity; While the vast majority of the Afghan people are below the poverty line, all of the Taliban’s declarations are limited to the hair and face of women.”
It is while the Taliban issued various statements restricting and excluding women from socio-political activities, for example, they instructed vehicle drivers not to ride unveiled women or women who are not accompanied by men, and advised shopkeepers to behead women’s fashion mannequins, as well as the banning of movies and TV shows featuring women and pictures of women, has been removed from all billboards in Afghan cities.
However, the women of Parwan have called on the international community not to “recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan” because the group lacks the motivation and ability to rule the country and opposes human rights values.
The protests in Parwan province are taking place at a time when women have continued to protest and resist the Taliban since its inception, despite repression, threats, and violence. Although street protests by women in Kabul, Kunduz, and Badakhshan were severely suppressed, at least one to three anti-Taliban rallies are held each week in various cities across the country.
Translated by: Jahan Raha
