Afghanistan: Brave Women Take To Street In Protest Of Taliban Return

Footage has gone viral showing a brave group of women in Kabul taking to the streets to protest for their rights.

There have been reports of the doors of prominent women being marked out with paint, while female journalists have now been taken off air on the majority of television networks.

Women are being told they can’t leave their house without a mahram, which is a male family member. Women are being forced out of their jobs. These are women working as professionals who have trained for a long time. They are turning women into prisoners in their own homes.

The video, which was shared by NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, shows the courageous group holding placards and declaring that ‘work, education and political participation is every woman’s right’.

In another video, shared by writer and photojournalist Arash Azizzada, four women could be seen protesting outside what appears to be their office, holding up signs asserting ‘they should be allowed to work, a right given to them by Allah and the Prophet’.

According to Azizzada, Taliban soldiers in a Humvee could be observed ‘just feet away’ at the time of filming, with the women participating in the demonstration being ‘very brave’ indeed.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001 when the regime was toppled by US forces. During this period, girls were stopped from getting an education, while women could only go out in public if they wore full-body coverings and were escorted by a man.

Women who violated such rules risked facing brutal punishments, including public flogging, stoning, amputations and even execution.