Both for the Taliban 2.0.
A top Taliban spokesman warned the US government on Friday that it should not try to alter the behavior of Afghanistan’s new rulers, especially on the issue of women’s rights.
“There will be no issues about women’s rights,” Suhail Shaheen told Fox News in an interview. “No problem about his education, his job. But we shouldn’t be after changing our culture, because we don’t intend to change your culture, you shouldn’t change our culture. “
Shaheen insisted that Afghan women “can receive education with the hijab. They can work with the hijab,” but rejected what he described as the Western view that “women should have an education without [a] hijab “.
The Taliban have tried to present themselves as more moderate than the generation that ruled the country between 1996 and 2001, when they were ousted from power by U.S.-led NATO forces in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. . During this period, women were forbidden to go out in public without a male companion and were not allowed to work or go to school.
After the Taliban recaptured the Afghan capital from Kabul last month, another Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid vowed that the group would honor women’s rights under Islamic law. Militants have also urged women to return to school and work, while a third Taliban spokesman granted an interview to a female TV news presenter.
Still, the word of the Taliban is not good enough for many Afghan women. The Associated Press reported on Friday that about 20 women held a protest in front of Kabul’s presidential palace demanding access to education, the right to return to work and a role in the country’s government.
“Freedom is our motto. It makes us proud, ”read one of his signs.
The AP reported that Taliban gunmen watched the rally but did not move to break it, although a fighter tried to disperse spectators who had stopped to watch the rally.
The Kabul protest followed a demonstration on Thursday by women in the western city of Herat. The Washington Post reported that protesters in that city marched to the local governor’s office to demand that women be included in the new government.
“The Taliban did not expect to see us on the street,” protest organizer Sabira Taheri told the newspaper. “They were surprised and didn’t know how to handle us.”
No arrests or casualties were reported from any of the protests.
With publishing cables