ISLAMABAD: A group of Afghan women rallied in Kabul on Tuesday to demand the right to an education following the expulsion of female students from the Kabul University dormitory, local media reported.
Videos showed the few dozen women carrying signs reading “Education is our red line” and chanting that the world has forgotten them under the Taliban.
The peaceful protest was soon dispersed and the women were removed from the area by the Taliban, who warned them about the risk of attack.
“Once again, the Taliban prevented us from demonstrating by insulting and threatening us,” a protester can be heard in a video.”Unfortunately, the Taliban threatened us with explosion and suicide bombing.”
Last month, more than 50 students, mainly young women, were killed in an attack in Kabul that sparked demonstrations by Afghans around the world. The Taliban broke up or suppressed protests in several provinces by force.
For example, in Kabul dozens of female Hazara students who were planning to join a protest claimed to be poisoned in the Kabul University dormitory.
A few days later, the dormitory authorities expelled a number of these students for protesting their alleged poisoning, the local newspaper Etilaatroz reported.
However, the Taliban’s higher education ministry claimed that the poisoning was due to overeating and that the expulsion of the girls was based on the university’s rules to maintain order and discipline. – dpa
