A number of women who attended a protest in Kabul on Sunday morning said three of them, including Fatima Mohammadi, Roqya Saee and Malalai Hashemi, “were arrested by the Taliban” during the protest.
Taliban has not commented on the arrest of the women.
The women said they were faced with “violence” by the Taliban and some “were beaten” by the Taliban during the rally.
The women chanted “education is our right”, “education, work, freedom”, “women in Afghanistan are a sign of this country” and “we’re all together in the fight against oppression.”
The women said that girls’ schools had been closed over the past two years and efforts have been made by the Taliban “to remove women” from society.
This comes as a women’s rights activist, Nargis Sadat, is in Taliban custody for the past two months and there is no news about his fate, her colleagues said.
The women called on the international community to review their engagement with the Taliban given the group’s treatment towards women and girls.
This also comes as dozens of university lecturers, human rights and civil society activists, journalists and human rights organizations have kicked off a campaign for “girls’ access to education” to advocate for the rights of girls who have been deprived of schooling for nearly two years after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
In a letter published last week endorsed by 185 professors, journalists and activists and 25 civil society and human rights organizations, they have called on world leaders, the United Nations, regional allies and international organizations to make a collective stance to put pressure on the Taliban to reopen secondary schools for girls.
Secondary schools are closed for girls for the past 552 days and meanwhile, the Taliban has closed universities for women since last December.
