Afghan women show solidarity with Iranian protesters, face harsh repression by Taliban


Iranian women have taken to the streets to protest the country’s repressive laws against women, and women in neighboring Afghanistan are taking note.

Widespread protests erupted in Iranian cities after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16 while detained by the morality police for violating Iran’s strict laws requiring women to cover their hair in public. What began as initial outrage over Amini’s tragic death quickly turned into anti-government protests and calls for the fall of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s revolutionary regime.

The crackdown on the Iranian security forces, especially the paramilitary Basij force within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, was severe. Since the protests began in mid-September, the US news agency for human rights activists has estimated that nearly 500 protesters have been killed and at least 18,000 arrested.

Women in Afghanistan see a familiar pattern playing against Iranian women, albeit on a much smaller scale at the moment. Protests for women’s rights are nothing new to Iranian or Afghan society and movements in each country have influenced each other due to cultural, linguistic and geographical proximity.

Afghan women shout slogans during a rally to protest what protesters refer to as Taliban restrictions on women, in Kabul, Afghanistan, December 28, 2021.

Afghan women shout slogans during a rally to protest what protesters refer to as Taliban restrictions on women, in Kabul, Afghanistan, December 28, 2021.
(Reuters/Ali Khara)

PROTESTS IN IRAN SCRAP IN STREETS AS OFFICIALS RENEW THREATS

Protesters in Iran have not lost sight of their neighbors in Afghanistan, who are also locked in a fight against an oppressive regime that limits women’s rights. Women in the streets show unity through graffiti art and protest songs.

Whether the protests in Iran will have a cascading effect on Afghanistan and the wider region will depend on how well the movement can withstand the regime’s forceful response and whether it can survive the continued crackdown.

The compulsory hijab has long been a source of domestic unrest for Iranian women since it was first implemented after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Thousands of people marched in the streets to oppose its mandate in the early days of the new scheme.

“The profound difference between today’s protests and those of the past is that they are led by women, not prominent women but often female students. This could allow the current Iranian protest movement to resist despite the government’s efforts at repression.” , says Fatemeh Aman, a non-resident. senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, she told Fox News Digital.

Observers say that for Afghan women, the women’s rights agenda has nowhere near the national reach or support that the current Iranian protests have garnered from broad swathes of society.

A protester shows a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a rally to support Iranian protesters who oppose their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody, Sunday October 2, 2022 in Paris.

A protester shows a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a rally to support Iranian protesters who oppose their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody, Sunday October 2, 2022 in Paris.
(AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

LIFE UNDER THE TALIBAN REGIME ONE YEAR LATER: WOMEN AND GIRLS STRUGGLE UNDER OPPRESSIVE POLICIES

Belquis Ahmadi, a senior Afghanistan program officer at the US Institute of Peace, notes that although protests have erupted in several provinces outside of Kabul, the domestic political situations in Iran and Afghanistan are very different. .

“Iranians have had nearly four decades to strategize and expand their networks among men and women. In Iran, men have come out in support of women, while in Afghanistan we don’t see the level of public support from men that one would have expected,” Ahmadi told Fox News Digital.

Recently, a small group of women took to the streets of Kabul to express solidarity with women protesters in Iran. Women gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul chanting “woman, life, freedom,” a common slogan heard on the streets of Iranian cities during recent protests. This comes in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack on Sept. 30 at a mentorship center in the Dasht-e-Barchi area of ​​western Kabul, a predominantly Hazara and Shia community.

The attack killed at least 53 people, including 46 girls and women. Protesters, mainly university students, took to the streets to demand answers and justice for their deaths. The Taliban security forces quickly dispersed all these protesters by brute force.

Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has rescinded many of the rights women had gained during the 20 years since they were first ousted from power in 2001, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Women held government positions, participated in civic life, and enjoyed increased career and educational opportunities. The Taliban quickly returned to their old ways after initial assurances that they had modernised. Just as the eager girls were about to go back to school in March 2022, the Taliban reneged on their promise to allow girls above sixth grade to go back to school. Taliban fighters guarded school entrances and refused to let girls into class.

Afghan women sing and hold placards to protest during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, March 26, 2022. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have refused to allow dozens of women to board several flights, including some overseas, because they were traveling without a male guardian, two Afghan airline officials on Saturday.

Afghan women sing and hold placards to protest during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, March 26, 2022. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have refused to allow dozens of women to board several flights, including some overseas, because they were traveling without a male guardian, two Afghan airline officials on Saturday.
(AP Photo/Mohammed Shoaib Amin)

AFGHANISTAN ONE YEAR LATER: HOW EVERYDAY LIFE HAS CHANGED IN THE COUNTRY DISTURBED BY THE TALIBAN CAPTURE

The Taliban’s grip on society extends beyond education, and they exercise near-total control over every aspect of Afghan life.

The Afghan Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, essentially the equivalent of Iran’s moral police but thought to be even more archaic and brutal, is also tasked with monitoring the behavior of Afghan women in the public sphere. Among the many restrictions placed on Afghan women by the new Taliban government; women are now forced to cover their faces and whole bodies. Women cannot control the type and color of the clothes they wear, they cannot go to public parks, gyms, choose their profession or leave the house without a male guardian.

“The Taliban have turned Afghanistan into a huge prison for women and girls,” Ahmadi said.

Despite long hardships, Afghan women still rallied to challenge Taliban rule, even in the face of public beatings.

Iranians are protesting the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the morality police last month, in Tehran on Thursday October 27, 2022.

Iranians are protesting the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the morality police last month, in Tehran on Thursday October 27, 2022.
(AP Images/Middle East, Files)

Pashtana Durani, founder of LEARN Afghanistan, a non-profit to help expand educational opportunities across Afghanistan, said the protests in Iran and Afghanistan are like a rising tide of women saying they’ve had one enough.

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“Women are tired of men using religion to control women. And that’s why they want freedom not only from a regime that oppresses them, but also to show solidarity and believe in a better world for themselves and for their next generations.” generations,” Durani told Fox. Digital news.

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