Afghanistan, women defy fear and take to the streets in Herat for the right to work

The right to work, but also the right to education and security. This is why about fifty women took to the streets in Herat, in the western part of Afghanistan. The number of participants must not seem low. In Taliban Afghanistan, the mere existence of a protest is news of enormous value. “It is our right to have education, work and security,” said the demonstrators who also carried placards. “We are not afraid, we are united.”

Basira Taheri, one of the organizers of the protest asked the Taliban to include women in the new government.

“We want them to hold consultations with us. We don’t see women in their meetings“. The Taliban announced in recent days that there would be no women in top positions in the executive.

The Taliban is facing a vast challenge, that is the challenge of awareness & consciousness.
For the past two decades, women have been equipped with weapons of awareness and the demands of their rights.
The question is whether the Taliban will use force to cope with this challenge pic.twitter.com/ehxMm2qpkj

– Mujtaba Haris (@mujtaba_haris) September 2, 2021

The women who took to the streets to protest are not wearing the burqa. They are women who have studied in recent years and are ready to hold the position, not to lose their acquired rights. “No government can survive without the support of women,” reads one of the placards. On another it says: “Education, work, security are our inalienable rights».

Photographer Fareshta Taheri explained to the France Presse agency that most of the women are locked in and afraid. But they all want two fundamental rights. «We are also ready to bring the burqa if they tell us to do it but we want women to be able to go to school and work ». Of the 177 journalists in Kabul, only 100 are still working according to Reporters Sans Frontières. The sportswomen who have not managed to escape live in hiding: the players of football and cricket teams.