Participants at the International Women Peace Security Forum in Kosovo informed Afghanistan International that the Taliban prevented four women from travelling to Kosovo at Kabul Airport.
These women were scheduled to attend a conference to receive the Kosovo Courage Award.
On Monday, the Kosovo Medal of Courage was awarded to several Afghan activists.
A participant told Afghanistan International that Taliban officials thwarted the travel of the four invited women to Kosovo.
During her speech at the forum, Zahra Nader, editor-in-chief of Zan Times, said that her colleagues were barred from travelling by the Taliban. Nader highlighted that some Afghan women, who were invited to the summit, were absent today due to the Taliban's restriction on females travelling without a male guardian. They are permitted to travel only when accompanied by a man.
One of the forum participants informed Afghanistan International that the women who were prevented from travelling are Adela Yadegar, an employee of Forum for Afghan Women; Mahnaz Baluch, an employee of the International Organisation for Migration’ Negina Ahmadi, an employee of the Just for Afghan Capacity and Knowledge Institute, and Freshta Yaqubi, an employee of the Organisation for Sustainable Aid in Afghanistan.
According to the source, while the Taliban permitted the invited men to travel at the airport, they intervened to prevent the women from departing before their flight.
As of now, Taliban officials have not commented in this regard.
It is not the Taliban's first attempt to prevent Afghan women from traveling; previously, the group hindered a group of girls from traveling to the United Arab Emirates for education in 2023.
Taliban has imposed a ban on girls' education beyond the sixth grade and has placed restrictions on women's employment across various sectors.
