While political leaders joined foreign envoys in Afghanistan in offering assurances of support for women’s rights on International Women’s Day, the Taliban did not join in the global commemoration.
Just over a week after the Islamist militant group and the United States signed a deal intended to end an 18-year-old war, many Afghan women are worried about what it will mean for their rights.
“We respect women, we congratulate our women – mothers, sisters, wives and relatives – but not under the name of 8th March, as Women’s Day, because it is not in Islam and Sharia,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
The Taliban did not allow women to be educated or leave the house without a male relative when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, and forced them to cover their faces.
The group says it would now allow women to be educated and work. But many women worry that the deal reached last month with the United States does not include adequate safeguards of women’s rights.
They fear a US troop withdrawal, the winding down of international engagement and re-emergence of the Taliban in politics will mean progress for women since 2001 is snuffed out.
“I think we women do not need the Taliban to congratulate us on Women’s Day ... women used the day to show the Taliban that women will not go backwards,” said Fawzia Koofi, a politician and women’s rights activist.
Meanwhile, Islamists pelted campaigners with stones, shoes and sticks as they marched through Pakistan’s capital on Sunday to mark International Women’s Day.
Women and men joined the event in Islamabad, one of several rallies across the country, for what is known in Pakistan as the Aurat March, using the Urdu word for women.
Hundreds of men and women from the Red Mosque brigade, comprising several local militant groups, and a Taliban-allied religious party staged a rival rally just across from the women’s march venue, said district deputy commissioner Hamza Shafqaat.
Police official Mazhar Niazi said the officers blocked the Islamists as they tried to break through a cordon to attack the marchers.
A witness and Mr Niazi said the Islamists threw stones, bricks, sticks and shoes at the marchers.
There has been an uproar in conservative circles over slogans used at the past two such events, including “My body, my choice”, “My body is not your battleground” and “Stop being menstrual phobic”.
Following last year’s event, organisers said they faced a backlash including murder and rape threats.
Marches in other cities across Pakistan were held peacefully amid tight security with a large participation from students, civil rights groups and other women’s organisations. – Reuters