Women’s Protests Which Erupted in Taliban’s Traditional Stronghold Kandahar Squashed

A photo of the detained lecturer reviewed by Afghanistan International shows bruises over his back due to the Taliban’s physical assault on him.

The lecturer has been released after his family members signed a guarantee letter wherein the Taliban fighters told him to resume his work as a university lecturer.

After the Taliban announced the ban on higher education for girls in Afghanistan, several university lecturers and professors have resigned from private and public universities in protest against the decision.

The Supreme Court of the Taliban announced that these people have been punished on charges of "illegitimate sexual relations".

Despite widespread condemnation of corporal punishment of citizens by the Taliban, the group has continued to carry out flogging of men and women in different provinces of Afghanistan.

The Taliban publicly flogged 12 other people, including a woman, on various charges in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province on Wednesday.

According to local sources, the Taliban has violently disrupted the demonstration in Takhar.

At the same time, the Taliban detained five female protesters and three journalists on Thursday in Kabul and transferred them to an unknown location.

According to Taliban sources, the group disrupted the women's demonstrations and beat up the protesters in the capital city too.

These women held a demonstration in Kabul against the ban on girls' education in Afghanistan.

After the Taliban leader’s decree to ban girls' higher education, scores of male and female students protested in various provinces of Afghanistan over the past two days.

Since taking control of power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have issued 16 decrees to restrict women’s social participation in Afghanistan.

The recent decree of the Taliban leader has been met with global outcry and widespread domestic criticism.

These women held a demonstration in Kabul against the ban on girls' education in Afghanistan.

The sources added that the Taliban tried to detain more female protesters, but many of them fled the area.

On Wednesday, several Afghan women protested in front of Kabul University against the Taliban's ban on girls' education too, but the protesters said that the group cracked down on the protest and confiscated their mobile phones.

The Taliban announced on Tuesday that based on a decree of the group’s leader, female university students across Afghanistan are barred from higher education.

The recent decree of the Taliban leader has been met with global outcry and widespread domestic criticism.

The statement added that the Taliban's oppressive measures against Afghan girls and women have been relentless and systemic.

Making it clear that such decrees will isolate the Taliban further, they urged the group to abandon the new oppressive measures with respect to university education for women and girls and reverse the existing decision to prohibit girls' access to secondary school.

The joint statement had been issued by foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States and the High Representative of the European Union.

They emphasised that the Taliban has been clearly disregarding the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Afghans as they have issued over 16 decrees and edicts, which constrain women's mobility, remove women from places of work, require head-to-toe coverings for women and even ban women from using public spaces.

The statement stressed that the signatories stand with all Afghans in their demand to exercise their human rights consistent with Afghanistan's obligations under international law.