Protesters raise their voices for women in Afghanistan on the brink of losing their rights
New Delhi:
Nearly 100 people gathered in Delhi’s Mandi House neighborhood tonight to show solidarity with the Afghan community in the country as the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.
Students, mostly women, raised slogans and carried posters demanding support for Afghan women and children when the Afghan capital Kabul fell to militias last Sunday.
With “Protect Afghan Women” placards, they tried to raise their voices for the women who were about to lose their hard-earned rights.
Speaking to NewsMadura, one of the protesters Sadaf said: “I am here to raise my voice for the Afghan women who are in need. Their voices have been taken away by the Taliban. Whatever promises the Taliban make, they are all false. are not allowed to work, are not allowed to leave the house without a man accompanying them, they are held as sex slaves, forcibly married. The children and women are the most vulnerable.”
“I feel happy and grateful that India has given us shelter and a place to stay. My relatives are trapped in Afghanistan. So many people have been displaced,” she said.
Even as the Taliban reassured the world at a news conference last week that they had changed, their message of moderation was contradicted by the protesters whose families are trapped in Afghanistan.
Zara, an Afghan refugee living in Delhi, said: “My family has been stuck in Kabul since last Sunday. Every day something new happens. They (Taliban) check houses. People who have been working for the US for 15-20 years have been searched “This is their rule. If they find out someone is working with a foreign government, they will kill them.”
Speaking about the atrocities unleashed on her country by the militias, she said: “60% of our people work with the US because they have been in Afghanistan for a long time. The Taliban find out about the men and kill them. Then the women marry them off or keep them for themselves and kill the children.”
“Every day I get news that my neighbor has been shot or that a family member is dead. How can someone sleep peacefully at night or keep a clear head when you wait for someone to knock on the door and shoot you in the head?”
Last Thursday, an Afghan female journalist said she was banned from working at her TV station after the Taliban took control of the country, and pleaded for help in a video posted online, AFP news agency reported. Well-known news anchor Shabnam Dawran wore a hijab and showed her office card: “our lives are threatened” in the clip on social media.
Many countries, including India, have opened their borders to Afghans desperate to escape a new Taliban rule. India has announced a new category of electronic visa – “e-Emergency X-Misc Visa” – to accelerate applications from Afghans who want to leave the Taliban-controlled country.
Thousands of people, desperate to flee the landlocked nation, have been crowding the Kabul airport since Aug. 15 after the Taliban took the capital.
