Afghan women wearing full face veils sat in rows at a Kabul university lecture theatre Saturday, pledging commitment to the Taliban’s hardline policies on gender segregation. About 300 women — covered head-to-toe in accordance with strict new dress policies for education — waved Taliban flags as speakers railed against the West and expressed support for the Islamists’ policies.
A handful wore blue burqas, which have only a small mesh window to see from, but most wore black niqabs covering most of the face apart from the eyes.
The women attended an event at a university, in which women speakers spoke in favor of the country’s new leaders, before taking to the streets for a pro-Taliban rally with banners proclaiming, in English, “We don’t want co-education” and “we are satisfied with the attitude and behavior of Mujahideens.”
The images are in stark contrast to other women-led protests that have taken place around the country in defiance of the Taliban.
The images of the pro-Taliban women have sparked a debate about personal choice and freedom.
“We are against those women who are protesting on the streets, claiming they are representative of women,” one speaker was quoted saying. Another reportedly said that women not donning the hijab (head covering) were “harming” the rest of them.
Visuals of pro-Taliban street demonstrations are also doing rounds on the internet. Protesting women are seen flanked by armed gunmen escorting them.
Following consecutive protests, led largely by Afghan women, in Kabul earlier this week, the Taliban government banned all street agitations unless permitted by them. Tear gas and violence were used to disperse dissenting crowds.
After the speeches in the meeting hall, the women walked in organised lines a short distance on the street outside, holding printed banners and flanked by Taliban soldiers carrying rifles and machine guns. The public demonstration was in stark contrast with scenes in Kabul and elsewhere earlier in the week, when Taliban fighters fired into the air to disperse a number of protests against their rule, shooting two people dead.
“Women who left Afghanistan cannot represent us,” one pro-Taliban banner on Saturday read.
“We are satisfied with attitude and behaviour of Mujahideens (Taliban)” read another.
The Taliban say they want to distance themselves from the harsher policies of old, when half the population was excluded from work and education. Under new rules, women may work “in accordance with the principles of Islam”, the Taliban have decreed, but few details have yet been given as to what that exactly might mean.
