Afghan women protest in Kabul, demanding right to education and job

KABUL (Khaama Press): Afghanistan women started a protest against the Taliban-led government on March 8, the day the world spoke out in favour of women’s rights, demanding rights to education and employment.
The protest took place in Kabul and demanded to lift of the ban restriction on education and work for females. The protest came after a statement issued by the Ministry of Higher education stated the opening of Universities without female students. The Taliban-led government banned women from attending university last December, which has confronted massive condemnation nationally and internationally.
The United Nations condemned the ban on women’s right to education and work, saying, “Under the Taliban, Afghanistan remains the most repressive country in the world for women,” said the UN special envoy, Roza Otunbayeva.
On the other hand, the Taliban banned women’s working in NGOs last December. The protesters also urged the international community to pay attention to the current Afghan women’s situation, particularly the ban on working.
Meanwhile, the UN warned the de facto government to drop humanitarian aid if women were prohibited from working. Banning women from working in NGOs disrupted humanitarian aid since Most of the aid organizations’ staff were female.
In a report delivered on Monday to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Richard Bennett, the Special Rapporteur for the United Nations on human rights in Afghanistan, stated that the Taliban’s prohibition on female education “may amount to gender persecution a crime against humanity.”