Taliban use water cannon on ladies protesting college banYesterday

Taliban safety forces used a water cannon to disperse ladies protesting the ban on college training for ladies on Saturday, eyewitnesses stated, as the choice from the Taliban-led authorities continues to trigger outrage and opposition in Afghanistan and past.

The event got here after Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Tuesday banned feminine college students from attending universities efficient instantly. Afghan ladies have since demonstrated in main cities in opposition to the ban, a uncommon signal of home protest for the reason that Taliban seized energy final 12 months.

Based on eyewitnesses within the western metropolis of Herat, about two dozen ladies on Saturday had been heading to the provincial governor’s home to protest the ban, chanting: “Training is our proper,” after they had been pushed again by safety forces firing the water cannon.

Video shared with The Related Press exhibits the ladies screaming and hiding in a aspect avenue to flee the water cannon. They then resume their protest, with chants of “Disgraceful!”

One of many protest organizers, Maryam, stated between 100 and 150 ladies took half within the protest, transferring in small teams from totally different components of the town towards a central assembly level. She didn’t give her final identify for concern of reprisals.

“There was safety on each avenue, each sq., armoured automobiles and armed males,” she stated. “Once we began our protest, in Tariqi Park, the Taliban took branches from the timber and beat us. However we continued our protest. They elevated their safety presence. Round 11 a.m. they introduced out the water cannon.”

A spokesman for the provincial governor, Hamidullah Mutawakil, claimed there have been solely four-five protesters. “That they had no agenda, they simply got here right here to make a movie,” he stated, with out mentioning the violence in opposition to the ladies or the usage of the water cannon.

There was widespread worldwide condemnation of the college ban, together with from Muslim-majority nations resembling Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, in addition to warnings from the US and the G7 group of main industrial nations that the coverage can have penalties for the Taliban.

An official within the Taliban authorities, Minister of Greater Training Nida Mohammad Nadim, spoke concerning the ban for the primary time on Thursday in an interview with the Afghan state tv. He stated the ban was needed to stop the blending of genders in universities and since he believes some topics being taught violated the rules of Islam.

He stated the ban can be in place till additional discover.

Regardless of initially promising a extra average rule respecting rights for ladies and minorities, the Taliban have broadly applied their interpretation of Islamic regulation, or Sharia, since they seized energy in August 2021.

They’ve banned ladies from center college and highschool, barred ladies from most fields of employment and ordered them to put on head-to-toe clothes in public. Girls are additionally banned from parks and gymnasiums. On the similar time Afghan society, whereas largely conventional, has more and more embraced the training of women and girls over the previous 20 years.

Additionally Saturday, within the southwestern Pakistani metropolis of Quetta, dozens of Afghan refugee college students protested in opposition to the ban on feminine greater training of their homeland and demanded the instant reopening of campuses for ladies.

One among them, Bibi Haseena, learn a poem depicting the grim scenario for Afghan ladies looking for an training. She stated was sad about graduating exterior her nation when a whole bunch of 1000’s of her Afghan sisters had been being disadvantaged of an training.