RASC News Agency: The Purple Saturdays Movement, marking 1,123 days since Afghanistani girls were banned from attending school, has denounced the Taliban’s prohibition, calling it a “severe regression” in Afghanistan’s progress toward gender equality and women’s empowerment. In its statement, the movement emphasizes that despite pressure from human rights organizations, the international community’s response to the Taliban’s ban has been “disturbingly lenient.”
The statement further asserts: “The lack of decisive action not only emboldens the Taliban but also sends a troubling message regarding the global prioritization of women’s rights.” The Purple Saturdays Movement stresses that the deprivation of education for girls and women extends beyond personal rights, with far-reaching negative impacts on various sectors of society. Since regaining power, the Taliban have barred girls from pursuing education beyond the sixth grade and have shut the doors of universities to female students.
Moreover, over the past three years, the Taliban have issued more than 70 decrees and regulations, stripping women of nearly all basic human rights, including the freedom to walk in public parks. Most recently, the Taliban introduced a new law under the banner of “The Law of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” which forbids women from showing their faces or being heard in public spaces where men are present. According to the Taliban, under this law, a woman’s face and voice are considered “Awrah” (intimate parts) and should not be seen or heard by men in public. However, in blatant hypocrisy, the same group is frequently seen sitting alongside foreign women at conferences, engaging in discussions without any apparent reservations.
