“The People United Stand Against Taliban and US Imperialism,” read one of the posters in the protest gathering of over hundred people at Mandi House in the capital city on Monday.
A people’s protest organised by over 15 human rights organisation was held in Delhi to register a collective resistance against the repressive Taliban that has recently come to power in Afghanistan.
आज के प्रदर्शन में नारा लगाती अफ़ग़ान छात्राएँ
Afghan women students raising slogans at today’s Afghan Solidarity demonstration in Delhi pic.twitter.com/NH5mWDHNT3— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) August 23, 2021
The demonstraters included Afghan students and refugees in India, leaders of CPIML and CPI and several women’s organisations and students, many of which spoke to the media about the danger looming over human rights of Afghan people particularly women and children in their own country.
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At a recent press conference leaders of Taliban had claimed that women will not be targeted for working and their rule will be ‘moderate’ in its use of force but several protesting Afghan women refuted the claim that the extremist group has changed in any way whatsoever.
“I am here to raise my voice for the Afghan women who are in need. Their voices have been taken away by the Taliban. Whatever promises are made by the Taliban are all false. They are not allowed to work, not allowed to step out of the house without a man escorting them, they are kept as sex slaves, married forcibly. The children and women are the most vulnerable,” NDTV quoted Sadaf, a protesting Afghan woman.
The Southwest Asian country has been completely taken over by Taliban forces with almost no struggle as US military forces withdrew haphazardly followed by which the US-backed President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
“For the last week, many of us from democratic rights groups have been feeling disturbed. We organised this to show solidarity. Like many of the Afghan protesters said, this is not the will of the people of Afghanistan and they should have a right to choose and be guaranteed equal rights,” The Indian Express quoted Kavita Krishnan, secretary of AIPWA and one of the organisers of the protest.
If there’s democracy in Afghanistan we’ll be the first to return & work for our people. And till our last breath we will not give up, we will keep up the struggle for a democratic Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/WSSvgYa3nU
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) August 24, 2021
Immediately after the Taliban forces took control of Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul, hundreds of thousands of people started fleeing the country in myriad ways to escape the brutal Taliban regime.
“To express solidarity, and call upon international organisations, particularly the UN, to take initiative to ensure peace in Afghanistan,” The Indian Express quoted Annie Raja, CPI leader and general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women.
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