MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Afghan women working in government institutions and non-governmental organizations staged a demonstration calling on the Taliban (banned in Russia) not to ignore the progress they had made over 20 years, the TOLOnews TV channel announced on Friday.
Neither the venue of the demonstration nor the number of participants were specified. Earlier, the movement’s official representative, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that the Afghan women would live within the confines of Sharia law.
"The people, the government, and any official who is to form a state in the future cannot ignore the women of Afghanistan. We will not relinquish our right to education, the right to work, and our right to political and social participation," human rights activist Fariha Esar stated. "We have worked hard for twenty years and will not go back," activist Shukria Mashaal noted.
However, on Thursday, two newswomen from the Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA) called on the Taliban to reinstate them after radicals barred them from the company's office. Furthermore, Clarissa Ward, an American correspondent for CNN TV channel in Kabul, said on Monday that after the Taliban’s arrival, she was forced to go on air in a hijab. Meanwhile, prices for a burqa (a robe with long sleeves and a mesh covering the face) surged 10 times amid increasing demand brought about by the panic among Afghan women, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported.
After the US announced that the military operation in Afghanistan had come to an end and had begun to withdraw troops, the Taliban launched a major attack on government forces. On August 15, the radicals swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani left the country, having relinquished his powers. Western countries are currently evacuating their citizens, including diplomats.