Some 50 Afghan women march against Taliban

Fevzi Kızılkoyun – KABUL

Some 50 Afghan women, leaving their hair half-covered with a headscarf and wearing purple scarfs around their necks, marched to the Presidential Palace in Kabul on Sept. 4, chanting slogans against the Taliban, saying, “We are not afraid.”

Taliban forces at first tried to stop the women by iron barriers but then the Taliban’s Badri 313 special forces intervened and dispersed the women protesters with whips and tear gas canisters.

The shocking event against the Taliban emerged at noon as 50 women wearing sunglasses started the march from the entrance of the National Defense Ministry.

During the one-kilometer march daily Hürriyet witnessed, the women chanted slogans, such as “Taliban, we want a cabinet with the presence of women,” “You can’t say a word to women,” “You cannot hold us at homes,” “We will not surrender till death,” “We will take our rights” and “No right for women, no legitimacy for the Taliban.”

The bewildered Taliban forces put iron barriers in front of the Presidential Palace, trying to stop the women.

As it could not stop the protesters, the Taliban’s Badri 313 special forces, which takes its name from the 313 Muslims who fought in the Battle of Badri, intervened and pointed guns at them.

The women protesters left the region without placing a wreath in front of the palace after being whipped and attacked with tear gas canisters.

“We stood against Taliban for our rights. Our struggle will continue until we have our rights,” Remziye Abdulhey, one of the protestors, told daily Hürriyet.

“How will they give our rights when they do not leave a chair for women at the cabinet?” asked Feride Süleymani, another protester.

“Let the international community hear our voice: Afghan women will stand tall,” Süleymani said in her interview with daily Hürriyet.