Two women were reportedly killed on Wednesday as female protesters took to the streets in several Afghan cities, defying the Taliban’s ban on demonstrations. The rare protests, which unfolded in Kabul, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif, mark a bold challenge to the regime’s escalating restrictions on women’s rights.
Witnesses said security forces opened fire on a crowd in Kabul’s Pul-e-Khishti district, killing two women and injuring at least five others. Taliban spokesmen denied the use of live ammunition, claiming their forces had fired warning shots into the air to disperse the crowd. But video footage verified by multiple news outlets shows uniformed men aiming directly at demonstrators.
The protests were sparked by the Taliban’s latest edict, issued last week, barring women from parks, gyms, and public baths. The decree also mandated that women must wear full-body coverings in public, with only their eyes visible. For many Afghan women, these measures recall the brutal rule of the 1990s when the Taliban stripped them of virtually all rights.
“We have nothing left to lose,” said a 24-year-old protester in Herat, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. “They have taken our schools, our jobs, our freedom. Now they want to erase us from public life. We will not be silenced.”
The demonstrations, organised through underground networks and encrypted messaging apps, represent the most significant public defiance since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Participants chanted slogans like “Bread, work, freedom” and “No to the Taliban’s dress code.” Many carried placards demanding the reopening of girls’ secondary schools, which remain closed despite Taliban promises to the contrary.
International condemnation was swift. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an immediate investigation into the deaths. The US State Department described the violence as “an assault on the fundamental rights of Afghan women.” But for those on the ground, such statements ring hollow.
“World leaders talk, but they do nothing,” said a teacher who joined the Kabul protest. “We are being erased, and the world is watching.”
The Taliban’s crackdown on dissent has intensified in recent months. Reporters Without Borders ranks Afghanistan as the world’s second most dangerous country for journalists. Activists face arbitrary detention, torture, and forced disappearances. Yet women continue to risk everything for what they call a fight for survival.
In Mazar-i-Sharif, a smaller protest saw women gather in a dusty square, some wearing blue burqas that have become a symbol of resistance. They stood in silence, holding banners that read: “We are not invisible.”
“They want to bury us alive,” said a former university student in Kabul. “But we will keep digging our way out. The world may have abandoned us, but we have each other.”
As night fell over the capital, the sound of gunfire echoed through the streets. The Taliban had imposed a curfew, and the women had gone home. But they vowed to return. “This is not the end,” one protester wrote on a scrap of paper, thrust into the hand of a foreign journalist. “It is only the beginning.”
