“It is unacceptable that the Arab countries are not reacting,” complains the president of the Afghan Women of France association.

The association is organizing a rally on September 14 in front of the Opéra Bastille in Paris in support of Afghan women.

“I’m waiting a reaction from France and mainly from the Arab countries who are silent and who are letting what is happening in Afghanistan happen”Chela Noori, president of the Afghan Women of France association, protested on France Inter on Thursday, September 12. The Taliban in power in this Asian country imposed new restrictions on women on August 22, including a ban on speaking in public.

“It is unacceptable that Arab countries do not react to the gender apartheid that women suffershe continues. I am a Muslim myself and I am proud to claim it, but that is really not Islam.”. “Activists tell me: ‘Thanks to this law, we have become totally invisible'”deplores the association manager. “I find it absurd that the whole world let this happen.”she insists.

Public speaking ban hits women’s rights activists in Afghanistan “because they are the ones who express themselves the most”but also “Many women who are isolated and who are forced to go out to do their shopping, for example they have to negotiate prices and so they are forced to talk”.

“There is still a large majority of women who are widows or who are married to old men, it must be said, and who are forced to beg, so you are forced to beg people, so these women, you forbid them to speak, how can they provide for their needs?”

Chela Noori, president of the Afghan Women of France association

to France Inter

According to feedback from her contacts, “in Kabul, there have been many fines that have already been issued, so for now, they are fines, it’s just paying a fine, but if they continue, it will go beyond that,” she warns. She thus questions the Taliban, “in the three years that you have been in power, what have you done for women apart from completely forbidding them to speak and soon to breathe?”