‘Iran has risen, now it’s our turn!’ Afghan women proclaim amid Taliban crackdown

New Delhi: Taking a cue from their counterparts in Iran where protests have been raging for over two weeks now, women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan have held a rally outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul to express solidarity with Iranian women who have been courageously taking on the autocratic Islamic regime in Iran following the custodial death of Mahsa Amini—a young Kurdish woman.

Holding banners aloft some of them with pictures of Amini, the Afghan women gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul to display solidarity and empathize with Iranian women who have been at the forefront of protests against the Islamic rulers facing a brutal crackdown even when they have been protesting in a non-violent manner.

In a video on microblogging platform Twitter, the Taliban can be seen snatching some of their banners and even targeting some hijab-clad women protesters with the butt of a rifle. The woman can be seen ducking the assault. One of the banners, members of the Taliban can be seen snatching read: “Iran has risen, now it’s our turn!”. Most of the banners had similar messages attempting to give a grim message to the Taliban, indicating that women in other repressive regimes in West Asia and around the world may also rise up in protest against denial of basic rights to women under Islamic law.

The protests in Tehran and other cities have now logged a death toll of nearly 76 Iranian men and women, most of them varsity students. The hijab — a symbol of oppression, and locks of chopped tresses tied to masts and atop poles and flags have become the overpowering symbol of one of the biggest protests that Iran has seen in recent times.

But in what seems different in Afghanistan, it is only a handful of brave women who have held the rally outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul and braved the wrath of the Taliban whereas in Tehran, thousands of women have taken to the streets protesting the killing of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was arrested for her choice of attire and harassed by the country’s infamous ‘morality police’, which subsequently led to her death.

In another first in Iran, as well as for most West Asian countries where patriarchy has been the norm for decades, men too have been pouring out on the streets of Iran’s capital city Tehran to join the massive protests which erupted after the death of the 22-year-old. Young men and women, most of them university students have been facing a severe backlash unleashed by the Iran government as they seek answers to what is more important—life or the way they choose to live in dictatorial, ruthless regimes such as those which exist in Iran and nearer home in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

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