The Taliban consolidates control of Afghanistan, but women’s rights protesters aren’t done yet

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban fired into the air Tuesday to disperse protesters and arrested several journalists, the second time in less than a week the group used heavy-handed tactics to break up a demonstration in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Dozens of women were among the protesters. Some of them carried signs bemoaning the killing of their sons by Taliban fighters they say were aided by Pakistan. One sign read: “I am a mother when you kill my son you kill a part of me.”

On Saturday, Taliban special forces troops in camouflage fired their weapons into the air to end a protest march in the capital by Afghan women demanding equal rights from the new rulers.

Women marched across the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif on Monday, in the latest of a string of protests in urban areas against the Taliban’s suppression of women’s rights. The demonstrators dispersed only when the protest threatened to turn violent, with Taliban fighters growing agitated. One witness said two police vehicles intentionally drove toward the marchers.

“We were afraid. But at least, we demanded our rights,” said Karima Shujazada, a 26-year old protester in Mazar-e Sharif, who helped organize a march to the provincial governor’s office and around the city. The deputy governor came out to assure them that the Taliban would respect women’s rights, she said.

“I talked to him about all of our achievements over the two decades, but the more I talked to him, the more he told me to stay a bit far from him,” said Shujazada.

The women carried placards with messages like “We want political participation at all levels” and decrying gender segregation.

Women’s rights protests have taken place in recent days in Herat and Kabul, the capital. Women also took to the streets of Zaranj, near the border with Iran, demanding respect for civil liberties. The Taliban on Saturday violently suppressed the Kabul march, though a spokesman for the group later told the Guardian they had detained four men who allegedly struck women at that demonstration.

Across Afghanistan, a generation of girls have grown up in a world completely different from the one their parents knew. When it last ruled from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned girls from school and women from the workplace. While the Islamist militants have pledged to govern more moderately, many remain deeply skeptical of their promises.

As university classes resumed across Afghanistan this week for the first time since the Taliban takeover, some institutions imposed gender segregation and divided classrooms with curtains or boards.

“I really felt terrible when I entered the class . . . We are gradually going back to 20 years ago,” a female student at Kabul University told Reuters.

The Taliban’s actions are being closely watched from abroad, with Western governments signaling that the resumption of most aid will be contingent on whether Afghanistan’s new rulers respect basic human rights.

At a news conference that day, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid promised women would eventually be “asked to return” to their jobs. Mujahid also told reporters that the Taliban would announce an “inclusive” new government “within days,” although he didn’t offer any details.

The Taliban again moved quickly and harshly to end Tuesday’s protest when it arrived near the presidential palace. They fired their weapons into the air and arrested several journalists covering the demonstration. In one case, Taliban waving Kalashnikov rifles took a microphone from a journalist and began beating him with it, breaking the microphone. The journalist was later handcuffed and detained for several hours.

“This is the third time i have been beaten by the Taliban covering protests,” he told The Associated Press on condition he not be identified because he was afraid of retaliation. “I won’t go again to cover a demonstration. It’s too difficult for me.”

A journalist from Afghanistan’s popular TOLO News was detained for three hours by the Taliban before being freed along with his equipment and the video of the demonstration still intact.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Meanwhile, in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, four aircraft chartered to evacuate about 2,000 Afghans fleeing Taliban rule were still at the airport.

Mawlawi Abdullah Mansour, the Taliban official in charge of the city’s airport, said any passenger, Afghan or foreigner, with a passport and valid visa would be allowed to leave. Most of the passengers are believed to be Afghans without proper travel documents.

None of the passengers had arrived at the airport. Instead, organizers apparently told evacuees to travel to Mazar-e-Sharif and find accommodation until they were called to come to the airport.

The Taliban say they are trying to find out who among the estimated 2,000 have valid travel documents.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Qatar on Tuesday the Taliban have given assurances of safe passage for all seeking to leave Afghanistan with proper travel documents.

He said the United States would hold the Taliban to that pledge. “It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said those without valid documents, at this point, can’t leave,” he said.

“Because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights have not been allowed to go,” he added.

The State Department is also working with the Taliban to facilitate additional charter flights from Kabul for people seeking to leave Afghanistan after the American military and diplomatic departure, Blinken told a joint news conference with Qatar’s top diplomatic and defense officials.

“In recent hours” the U.S. has been in contact with Taliban officials to work out arrangements for additional charter flights from the Afghan capital, he said.

Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were in Qatar to thank the Gulf state for its help with the transit of tens of thousands of people evacuated from Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Kabul on Aug. 15.

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Associated Press writers Kathy Gannon, Tameem Akhgar and Robert Burns contributed to this report. Washington Post reporters Rachel Pannett, Ezzatullah Mehrdad and Haq Nawaz Khan also contributed.