Afghan women have recently launched a new campaign against the terrorist group the Taliban: “From home to street, topple the Taliban”.
This campaign has been launched in response to the banning of women’s work in national and international organizations and women’s education in universities and all public and private educational centers by the Taliban.
Afghan women have widely joined this campaign and have protested against the gender apartheid under the Taliban by recording videos in the roofed spaces and publishing them on social media.
Women who have joined this campaign had different occupations and social positions under the previous regime (teacher, civil activist, employee of international organizations, and journalist), and now they are forced to stay at home by the terrorist group the Taliban.
They talk about their past activities, social positions, and current situation in the videos they publish on social media.
A number of men also have joined this campaign by recording and publishing videos, protesting against the restrictions imposed on women by the Taliban and showing their solidarity with the protesting women of Afghanistan.
Shifting from an Interactive Approach to The Taliban
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the main issue of protesting women has been defending women’s fundamental rights; the right to education, the right to work, and the right to political participation.
But the Taliban have deprived Afghan women of all these rights and imposed extended restrictions on their fundamental rights and civil liberties.
Hoda Khamosh is one of the women who came to the street in the early days of the Taliban takeover and protested against them with the slogan “food, work, freedom.”
She told Nimrokh that, in the past, they advocated establishing an all-inclusive government, as well as women and girls’ education, but now the Taliban are acting totally against these ideals.
“We also changed our campaign and our slogans so that we can plan to overthrow the Taliban,” she says.
Vahida Amiri, a protesting woman, was arrested and tortured by the Taliban fighters after participating in the street demonstrations.
She also told Nimrokh that their most important message is that “we are protesting from home to street to overthrow the Taliban, and we want this voice to be heard worldwide.”
Protesting women in Afghanistan are also criticizing the international community for its interaction with the Taliban. “The world is unhesitatingly standing by the Taliban,” Hoda Khamosh says, emphasizing that: “the world that is interacting with the Taliban must see how the people of Afghanistan, especially the women, are being excluded and ignored.”
Shifting from an interactive approach to the Taliban is now getting stronger and wider among the protesting women of Afghanistan. They emphasize that Afghan women can achieve their basic human rights in a meaningful way and play a real role in the future of their country only by the overthrow of the Taliban regime; Not in a government in which the Taliban are also a part of it.
We Will Not Let Silence Prevail
In the last year and a half, the Taliban have widely suppressed the Afghan women’s protests and demonstrations; From shooting at them in the streets to raiding their homes at night and brutally torturing them in their arbitrary prisons.
Vahida Amiri says that after the suppression of women’s street demonstrations by the Taliban, they were thinking about how they could institutionalize the protests and reflect the ongoing situation in Afghanistan.
Amiri says the protests eventually started at home and Afghan women raised their voices anonymously from different corners of the country and protested against the Taliban rule.
She says that the general goal of the protests is not to let silence prevail in society.
This female protester says that, through their campaign, they want to draw the world’s attention to Afghanistan and what is going on against women in the country and that they are planning and working hard to achieve this goal.
Hoda Khamosh also says that she asks the Afghan people to stop being silent and, like the people in other countries facing cruel dictatorships, to stand with women and raise their voices to support them.
“We are fighting to overthrow the Taliban,” she emphasizes, “whether we ask the people, or the world, to help us in this regard, or we confront the Taliban in the streets and international tables by ourselves.”
This protesting woman says that Afghan women are seeking and fighting for a nationwide revolution for the sake of their country and history, and they want the Afghan people to show their solidarity with them so that they can bring about a change.
