Two women were shot dead and several more wounded in Kabul on Tuesday as security forces cracked down on a rare public demonstration demanding equal rights. The protest, organised by a handful of women who dared to challenge the Taliban’s diktat banning girls from secondary education, was met with live fire, witnesses said. The United Kingdom swiftly condemned the violence, calling it “a brutal assault on the most basic human freedoms.”
For the women who took to the streets, it was a desperate act. Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, protests have been effectively crushed, women erased from public life, and schools shuttered for girls beyond the age of 12. This week’s demonstration was a flicker of defiance amid a suffocating atmosphere of fear. “We have nothing left to lose,” one protester told reporters before the march, her voice trembling. “We are already dead inside.”
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly issued a statement calling the killings “utterly reprehensible” and urging the Taliban to “immediately halt the repression of women and girls.” But for Afghan women, international condemnation feels hollow. Since the fall of the Western-backed government, aid has been slashed, sanctions have deepened poverty, and the Taliban has tightened its grip with each passing month.
The protest unfolded in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood, a Hazara-dominated area that has been a flashpoint for both ethnic and gender-based persecution. Video footage shared on social media, verified by BBC News, shows a group of around 20 women walking with placards reading “Bread, Work, Freedom” and “Education is Our Right.” Gunshots ring out. The crowd scatters. Two bodies lie in the dust.
“It was a massacre, not a protest,” said a witness who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “They came for us with bullets. They didn’t even warn us.” The Taliban’s interior ministry denied that security forces had opened fire, claiming instead that the women were “violent agitators” and that “the situation is under investigation.” No credible investigation is expected.
This is not the first time the Taliban has met peaceful protest with sheer violence. In September 2021, days after the takeover, security forces fired into the air to disperse similar demonstrations. In January 2022, a protest by university students was broken up with tear gas and batons. But Tuesday’s killings mark a dangerous escalation: the first confirmed deaths of women protesters under the new regime.
The international community has struggled to find leverage. The UK, along with the United States and European Union, has cut aid and imposed sanctions, but the Taliban has shown little interest in compromise. Inside the country, the economy is in freefall. The UN estimates that 97% of Afghans live in poverty. Women are the worst hit: banned from most jobs, confined to their homes, and forced to cover head to toe in public.
For the families of the slain women, the future offers only grief and fear. “My daughter wanted to be a teacher,” sobbed one mother, sitting beside a bloodstained medical bed. “She just wanted to teach girls to read. Is that a crime?” The answer, under the Taliban’s rule, appears to be yes.
The UK has pledged to continue raising the issue at the UN Security Council, but critics argue that diplomatic gestures are meaningless without concrete action. “Words are cheap,” said a former British diplomat who served in Kabul. “The women of Afghanistan need safe passage, humanitarian corridors, and real pressure on the Taliban. Instead, they get statements.”
As night fell over Kabul, the streets were empty. The protest was crushed. But those who knew the women who died say they were not afraid. “They knew the risk,” said a friend. “They did it anyway. And now they are martyrs.”
For the rest of the world, the question remains: how many more must die before outrage turns into intervention?
