Taliban gunfire breaks up women's rights protests that pose problem for new Afghanistan government
"“You Have No Right to Complain”"
1 hours ago Reuters: West Asia News Agency)
Afghan women gather to protest in Kabul on Tuesday.(euters: West Asia News Agency)
A group of Afghan women crouched on the side of a Kabul street and took cover after members of the Taliban fired shots into the air to disperse hundreds of protesters.
Key points:
* The protests, often led by women, pose a challenge to the new Afghan government
* When the Taliban ruled from 1996-2001, girls could not attend school and women were banned from work
* The group has promised to be more tolerant this time
One of them spoke rapidly at the camera filming them.
"These people [the Taliban] are very unjust, and they are not human at all," she said.
"They do not give us the right to demonstrate; they are not Muslims but infidels."
Heavy gunfire resumed, leading to more panic.
There were no known casualties from the firing, and video footage from Tuesday's protests, some of it shared on social media, showed Taliban pointing their rifles in the air before firing.
VIDEO - Shots fired into the crowd to try and disperse protests in Afghanistan. 50s
"They were asked to be a little patient and when the system has been established and the organisations are functioning then they will get back to you," a Taliban spokesperson said this week, referring to female protesters.
Now ministers have been named, the expectations of a society where civil rights have been strengthened over the past two decades are only likely to grow.
The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, girls could not attend school and women were banned from work and education. Religious police would flog anyone breaking the rules, and public executions were carried out.
The group has promised to be more tolerant this time — a commitment many Afghans and foreign donors have expressed doubts about, and will be monitoring closely.
'Now or never situation' for women
The protesters' demands vary.
Female students in the western city of Herat said they would lobby loudly for greater representation in the new government and for their rights to be respected.
"Women have to come out to save our jobs and status in society. It is really a now or never situation," Dariya Imani, a business student at Herat University, said.
Read more about the Taliban's advance in Afghanistan:
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