Afghanistan: Women came out to protest against uncertain future | They claim their rights to education, work and political participation under the Taliban regime

Women took to the streets of the Afghan city of Herat to claim their right to work and demand that the new cabinet, due to be announced tomorrow, also be made up of women, as Taliban leaders had promised after the takeover from Kabul. .

“It is our duty to have education, work and safety” chanted the dozens of demonstrators who also carried banners, one of them reading “We are not afraid, we are united”. Radical Islamists are due to make the announcement of their cabinet this Friday, a few days after the departure of the last American army after 20 years of occupation by Washington of the country of Central Asia.

“There has been no change”

Mariam Ebram, 24, is one of the women who attended the protest in the cosmopolitan city of Herat amid the Taliban regime’s lack of response on women’s right to work. Ebram told Qatari channel Al Jazeera that she and a group of women had met with senior Taliban officials to ask for explanations on future policies. However, they did not receive a clear answer.

“After weeks of trying to engage with the Taliban at all levels, women have decided to make their voices heard publicly“said Ebram.” We tried to talk to them, but We have seen that apart from the Taliban 20 years ago, there was nobody. There has been no change“He added in reference to the previous Taliban government between 1996 and 2001, which was characterized by the prohibition of education and employment of women.

wardrobe for men

This week some possible appointments for the new cabinet emerged, although between the names they did not mention any woman. “There are talks to form a government, but (the Taliban) they don’t talk about women’s participationSaid one of the organizers of the women’s protest in Herat, Basira Taheri. “We want the Taliban to talk to usHe added. However, According to a senior Taliban official, there may not be women at the head of ministries or in positions of responsibility.

Journalism without women

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), less than 100 women journalists continue to work officially on private radio and television in Kabul. A study conducted by the organization in association with the Center for the Protection of Afghan Women Journalists (CPAWJ), Last year in Kabul, 1,080 women worked in the media, including 700 journalists.

“Of the 510 women who worked in eight of the largest media and press groups, only 76 (including 39 journalists) still work today. In other words, women journalists are disappearing from the capitall ”, wrote the NGO in a note published on its website.

Days after the Taliban took power, media officials revealed the harassment of the new regime. On August 25, Nahid Bashardost, journalist with the independent news agency Pajhwok. Other journalists also reported in tears that the Taliban who stood guard over the media prevented them from going out to cover the news. In the province of Ghazni a journalist who works at a radio station said that 48 hours after taking power the Taliban spoke on the radio and warned that, being a private media outlet, they could continue to broadcast “but without a woman’s voice and without music”.

“Women journalists must be able to resume their work as soon as possible without being harassed, because it is their most fundamental right, because it is essential for their livelihood, and also because their absence from the media landscape would silence all Afghan women. We urge the Taliban leadership to offer immediate guarantees of freedom and security women journalists “, RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire said.

The initial facade

The promise of an inclusive government was latent in the first days after the capture of the capital Kabul, the opening of the Taliban seemed to be confirmed with the interview that the television presenter of the Tolo News signal, Beheshta Arghand, 24, made him one of the leaders of the insurgent movement. Arghand’s interview bodes well for an opening never seen under the previous insurgent regime.

However, for Arghand, the facade fell days later when the Taliban suspended female presenters from other TV stations and ordered their colleagues at Tolo News to wear hijabs, which covers the head and hair of women. The journalist also said that the insurgents had asked local media to stop covering the takeover of the Taliban movement. “When you can’t (or even) ask easy questions, how can you be a journalist? “asked Arghand, who said most of his female colleagues had already left the country despite the regime’s claims about media freedom. and women’s access to education and work.

But a few days after the interview, the Afghan journalist had to leave the country. Currently in Qatar, Arghand recounted the oppression suffered by women since the Taliban took power in mid-August. As reported by the British newspaper The Guardian, the interview with the Taliban leader conducted by the Tolo News presenter took place after the head of the insurgent movement showed up at the station’s building without prior invitation and asked to be interviewed.

The Tolo News reporter said she managed to get out of Afghanistan with the help of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai after surviving a gunshot in the face of a Pakistani Taliban for his campaign for the education of women and girls. “I want to say to the international community: please do something for Afghan women,” she said.