KABUL, Afghanistan – Shortly before noon on Tuesday in Kabul’s Shar-e-Naw district, hundreds of young women, along with hundreds of men, stormed Afghanistan’s presidential palace in vehement protest against the Taliban government .
“Death in Pakistan, death in the Taliban, death in those who deceived our country,” they chanted.
But as the impetus was boosted, the Taliban dispersed the crowd in minutes firing endless bullets into the air, prompting dozens of protesters to flee in various directions, disappearing amid the crowd of shopkeepers and onlookers.
The mass movement marks one of several that have unfolded in the transformed city in recent days, with the latest spurred on by Afghan women outraged by their loss of rights and enraged not only by the Taliban incursion into the country. ‘last remaining resistance province: Panjshir, but over concerns over Pakistan’s involvement in the fight about 80 kilometers north.
Pakistan’s head of the inter-service intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, arrived in Kabul over the weekend to meet with the Taliban leadership under the formal guise of helping mitigate the formation of the new government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The visit of the powerful intelligence officer marks one of the most publicly visible to date, consolidating Pakistan’s growing influence over the neighboring nation.
Nevertheless, the chaotic moment of protest came with tired sighs from street vendors and other passers-by, who all seem to have become accustomed to the restlessness and uncertainty that the country has taken not only in recent weeks but also in recent weeks. years.
Tuesday’s rally, according to protesters and security analysts, was triggered by a statement issued Monday by Ahmad Massoud, leader of the Panjshir-based National Resistance Forces. Massoud called on supporters inside and outside the besieged nation to “stand up in resistance for the dignity, integrity and freedom (of) Afghanistan.”
Other eyewitnesses described the demonstration as mostly women, and most expressed discomfort towards Pakistan.
“We are tired,” one protester later lamented as he took refuge inside a bakery after fleeing authorities. “That’s all we can do now.”
However, the Taliban intelligence authorities on the street, who belong to the group’s elite forces, offer a different view of the situation.
“We talked to some protesters and they didn’t know why they were even there,” a Taliban commander told me when a group of his special forces met, stressing that they were paid the equivalent of about 10 to 10. $ 20 for a “special Massoud Organizing Group” to cause discomfort.
A medical representative at the Kabul Emergency Care Hospital, located at the site of the protests, told me afterwards that no one was admitted with gunshot wounds. However, six people were rushed with other injured related to the event. Early reports on Tuesday also indicated that dozens of protesters, including women, were arrested after the camera equipment was confiscated. Local Afghan broadcaster TOLONews wrote on Twitter that its camera operator filming the demonstrations was one of those arrested.
“We hope there are no more,” the Taliban commander continued, downplaying the number of activists who had gathered. “We want to tell women that they have nothing to worry about. We will give them jobs. “
Another Taliban patrol officer, sitting with a PK-powered machine gun in the back of an armored truck, agreed that no one was injured and that “they would solve all the women’s problems.”
Still, the morning chaos did not deter women. Around three-thirty in the afternoon, another protest proliferated in the same district of Shahr-e-Naw, filled almost entirely with women who appeared to be in their twenties. Hundreds of women gathered in small packets on street corners, armed with handwritten posters and shouting “Freedom” as they began their discouraging walk into the unknown and into a possible rain of gunfire and handcuffs.
“We want to achieve what we have worked so hard for,” said a prominent Afghan women’s rights activist who was not present at Tuesday’s commotion. “It simply came to our notice then. We no longer have life as it is. “
The escalation of protests against the Taliban comes as a time when the emirate is still in the process of forming a new government, amid increasingly intense murmurs of militant fighting and different factions of the Taliban with different agendas and persecutions of the Taliban. power.
While it remains to be seen exactly when the announcement will be made and who will be given the roles, Taliban officials have already made it clear that no women will be allowed in high-ranking positions.
Still, the visible unrest indicates that not only Afghan women, but also men, are refusing to go down without a fight.