Women prohibited from celebrations while the Taliban mark the fourth anniversary of the takeover of Afghanistan | Afghanistan

On Friday, thousands of men gathered through Kabul to watch the scattered flowers of the helicopters to mark the fourth anniversary of the return of the Taliban power – a celebration at which women were excluded to attend.

Three of the six “flower shower” locations were already prohibited for women, which have been prohibited from entering parks and recreational areas since November 2022.

The Taliban seized Afghanistan on August 15, 2021 while the United States and NATO withdrew their forces at the end of a two decades war. Since then, they have imposed their interpretation of the Islamic law on daily life, including radical restrictions on women and girls, based on the edicts of their chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Friday’s birthday program, which also included speeches by the members of the cabinet, was only for men. An outdoor sports performance, which should initially present Afghan athletes, did not take place.

Rights defense groups, foreign governments and the UN condemned the Taliban for their treatment of women and girls, who remain prohibited from numerous jobs, education beyond the sixth year and most public spaces.

Friday, members of the United Afghan Women Movement organized a indoor protest against the domination of the Taliban in the northeast province of Takhar.

“This day marked the beginning of a black domination that excluded women from work, education and social life,” the movement said in a press release shared with Associated Press. “We, Protestant women, remember this day not as a memory, but as an open injury in history, an injury that has not yet healed. The fall of Afghanistan was not the fall of our will. We hold, even in darkness. ”

There was also an interior demonstration in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Afghan women have held signs that said “forgive the Taliban is an act of enmity against humanity” and “August 15 is a dark day”. They were completely veiled, with the exception of their eyes, on the photographs.

Earlier in the day, the Taliban chief said that God would severely punish Afghans who were ungrateful for Islamic domination in the country, according to a statement.

Akhundzada, who is rarely seen in public, said in a statement that the Afghans had endured difficulties and made sacrifices for almost 50 years so that Islamic law or Sharia law can be established. Sharia law had saved people from “corruption, oppression, usurpation, drugs, theft, theft and looting,” he said.

“These are large divine blessings that our people should not forget and, during the commemoration of the victory day, express a great gratitude to Allah all-powerful so that blessings increase,” said Akhundzada in the comments shared on X.

“If, against the will of God, we do not manage to express his gratitude for blessings and that we are ungrateful for them, we will be subject to the severe punishment of Allah all-powerful,” he said.

Last month, the International Criminal Court published arrest warrants against Akhundzada and the chief judge, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing them of crimes against humanity for the persecution of women and girls.

The ICC said that there were “reasonable reasons to believe” that they had ordered politicians who deprived women and girls of “education, private life and family life and freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion”.

This year’s birthday celebrations are more silent than those last year, when the Taliban organized a military parade in an American air base, attracting Donald Trump’s anger to abandoned American equipment.

Afghanistan is also seized by a humanitarian crisis aggravated by the climate crisis, millions of Afghans expelled from Iran and Pakistan, and a sharp drop in donor financing.