(Herat) The Taliban forces fired in the air several times to disperse demonstrators who denounced, Sunday in western Afghanistan, the terrorist attack against female students from the Hazara minority, some claiming to have been beaten.
Posted at 9:55 a.m.
The hundred participants, most of them belonging to the Hazara community, demonstrated in the city of Herat to denounce the suicide attack which killed, on Friday in Kabul, at least 35 people, including 20 young girls. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, 82 people were also injured in the explosion.
The attack was perpetrated in a training center preparing for university exams, located in a district of the capital home to this Shiite minority community. The girls were the main victims of the attack which has not been claimed.
“Education is our right! Genocide is a crime! cried Sunday the young girls who started a march from the University of Herat, noted an AFP correspondent.
Protesters heading towards the provincial headquarters were stopped before they reached their goal by the heavily armed Taliban. They also ordered journalists not to cover the rally.
“We had no weapons, we were just chanting slogans as we walked,” protester Wahida Saghri told AFP.
“But they beat us with sticks and even shot in the air to disperse us,” the girl said.
Many female students who were unable to participate in the march staged a simultaneous protest on the university campus, according to videos obtained by AFP.
“We couldn’t get out because the Taliban security forces closed the main gate of the university,” said protester Zulaikha Ahmadi. “We then chanted slogans and asked for the gate to be opened, but they (the Taliban) dispersed us by shooting in the air”.
Since the Taliban regained power in August 2021, women’s protests, which rarely gather more than 40 people, have become risky. Many protesters were arrested.
Girls’ education is an extremely sensitive issue in Afghanistan, a country with a Sunni majority. The Taliban banned secondary education (middle and high school) for girls. On the other hand, female students are admitted to university, but their number should decrease over the years, for lack of having been to college and high school.
The Taliban also consider the Hazara community to be pagans, and human rights groups have often accused them of targeting them.
The regional branch of the Islamic State jihadist group, EI-K, which in the past has also claimed responsibility for several attacks against the Hazaras, considers them heretics and also opposes the education of girls.