Afghan women stage protest in Kabul to flag concerns over lack of employment opportunities

Amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, a group of women protested in the nation's capital, Kabul, to voice their displeasure with the continuing, effective ban on female students over the sixth grade and on female employment, Tolo News reported. Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in the month of August of last year, limitations on women's fundamental rights have drawn attention on a global scale.  

Further, the Taliban was urged by the female demonstrators to support women and enable girls above grade six to attend school. Marghalare, a former employee of the Ministry of Interior, stated, “We call on the United Nations and the international community to pay attention to us and save women from these violations of their rights”.  

It is pertinent to mention that women in Afghanistan have suffered tragically as a result of Taliban atrocities. They face a lack of work opportunities and educational restrictions.  

Afghan women protested for women employment and higher education

During the protest, the female demonstrators demanded employment and access to higher education while displaying their academic credentials. According to TOLO News report, a protester remarked, “The document that we have in our hands is useless because all of us are at home and do not have any jobs”. 

In addition to this, earlier in the month of October, a group of women protested in Kabul to express their dissatisfaction with the Taliban-led administration's decision to exclude women from educational institutions.  

According to the women protesters, their fundamental rights have been violated by shutting women's universities and schools, TOLO news reported. In addition to female students, professors and lecturers also took part in the protest in Kabul against the extremist group. They called the shutting of schools and institutions a cause for considerable worry and claimed that it might significantly affect how girls will study in the war-torn nation in the future. 

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch claimed that the Taliban's response was harsh from the beginning, assaulting protestors, restricting demonstrations, and imprisoning and torturing reporters who were reporting the demonstrations. Aside from that, the Taliban forbade unapproved protests. The Taliban's abusive responses increased over time, reaching an especially harsh peak on January 16 in Kabul, when Taliban militants used pepper spray and electric shock weapons to threaten, intimidate, and physically beat protestors. 

Notably, since the fall of the Afghan government and the Taliban's return to power in August of last year, the condition for human rights in Afghanistan has gotten worse. 

(Image: ANI)