Kabul: Afghan woman wearing a full face veil sitting in a line at the Kabul University Lecture Theater on Saturday, promising a commitment to the Taliban hardline policy on gender separation.
About 300 women – head-to-toe is closed according to a strict new dress policy for education – waving the flag of the Taliban as a speaker to the west and expressed support for Islamist policy.
A handful of Wore Blue Burqas, which only has a small mesh window to see, but mostly wear black niqab which includes most of the faces separated from the eyes.
Many also also wear black gloves.
Women’s rights in Afghanistan sharply limited under the Taliban government of 1996-2001, but since returning power last month they claimed that they would apply less extreme rules.
This time, women will be allowed to attend universities during the class separated by sex or at least divided by curtains, the Taliban education authority has said.
They also have to wear abaya and niqab robes.
Women, according to the committee are students, listen to a series of speeches at the education university of Rabbani Shaheed in the capital, Kabul.
The Big Taliban flag flanked the podium, because women’s speakers criticized women who had protested in Afghanistan in the past few days.
They also defended the new government of the Afghan Islamic Emirates, which have banned demonstrations unless permission is given by the Ministry of Justice.
Daud Haqqani, director of foreign relations at the Ministry of Education, said the protest was organized by women, who had requested and given permission to show.
“We opposed the women who protested on the streets, claiming they represented women,” said the first speaker, covered his head to toe.
“Is that the freedom to like the last government? No, it’s not freedom.
The last government abuses women.
They recruit women only with their beauty,” he said.
Some of the attendees holding the baby, who occasionally cried during a speech, while the other was a young girl who was clearly too young for the university.
A student named Shabana Omari told the people that he agreed with the Taliban policy that women had to cover their heads.
“Those who don’t wear hijab are harmed us all,” he said, referring to the headscarves worn by many Muslim women.
“Hijab is not an individual thing.” Omari concluded his speech by leading the choir “Allahu Akbar”, or “the greatest God”.
Another speaker, Somaiya, said history had changed since the Taliban returned.
“After this we will not see ‘bihijabi’ (people who are not wearing a headscarf),” he said.
“Women will be safe after this.
We support our government with all our strengths.” After a speech at the meeting hall, the women walked on a short-organized track on the road outside, holding a print banner and flanked by the Taliban army carrying guns and machine guns.
Public demonstrations contrasted with the scene in Kabul and elsewhere at the beginning of this week, when Taliban fighters fired into the air to dissolve a number of protests against their rules, shooting two dead.
“Women who leave Afghanistan cannot represent us,” one pro-Taliban banner on Saturday read.
“We are satisfied with the attitude and behavior of mujahidensi (Taliban)” reading others.
Taliban said they wanted to distance themselves from a harder policy than old, when half the population was excluded from work and education.
Under the new rules, women can work “in accordance with Islamic principles”, the Taliban have decided, but some details have not been given about what they really mean.
Covert protests: Afghan women’s rallies support the Taliban
