Afghanistan

Dozens of women held a protest in the Afghan capital on Sunday demanding the release of a female military officer who was taken prisoner by the Taliban four months ago, and also against the arbitrary killing of a young Hazara woman by the Taliban two days ago.

The women gathered in large numbers in Kabul demanding the Taliban release Alia Azizi from prison and protest against the killing of Zeinab Andullahi two days ago.

In order to pressurise the Taliban to allow space for women in the Ministry of Women's Affairs, hundreds of female protestors took to the streets in Afghan national capital, Kabul, on Monday. According to a report by Tolo News, the women who took part in the protest raised slogans against the oppressive rule and demanded active participation of women in every field, including politics.

Gul Bano* and Karima* are activists who ran provincial branches of the ministry of women’s affairs in two different parts of Afghanistan. Their former offices have been taken over by the Taliban’s feared enforcers, the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice.

They are now in hiding, afraid of the men they helped put in prison for domestic violence and other abuses, many of them in the Taliban or with family links to the militants.

Kabul, Sep 19 (EFE).- Female politicians in Afghanistan on Sunday held their first press conference under the new Taliban regime, where they called for the restoration of women’s rights to education and work.

The conference, attended by 150 women, was organized by the Movement for Change of Afghanistan. Founded in 2013, it is the first women-oriented political party in the country and is led by outspoken rights campaigner and lawmaker Fawzia Koofi.

"I take note of the public commitments made by the Taliban’s spokesperson to uphold women’s rights “within the framework of Islam”, including women’s right to work, to pursue higher education and to have an active role in society, as well as the right of girls to attend school. The immediate inclusion of women in the governance structure of the new leadership in Afghanistan will be the ultimate litmus test for the Taliban," stated Ms. Patten.

The Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, but there are still forces of opposition attempting to maintain human rights in the country.

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said on Tuesday that President Joe Biden's administration would press for "meaningful participation" for women and minorities in ongoing peace talks.

A three-day conference aimed at breathing life into Afghanistan’s stalled peace process has been launched in Moscow, but Afghan human rights activists have raised the alarm that the delegates included just one woman.

The first female founder of an Afghan political party has urged the country to rethink the use of facial recognition technology in elections amid concerns it stopped large numbers of women from voting this year.

Authorities photographed all voters in September’s presidential election and used facial recognition software, a measure designed to combat fraud that women’s rights activists say deterred female voters from participating.