*Photo of Taliban leaders under the feet of the girls*
Women protest strongly against the new Taliban charter; “Legalization of child marriage and slavery of girls”
In response to the new Taliban charter on child marriage, the Women’s Movement Network and the United Afghan Women’s Movement for Freedom issued a strongly worded statement and protest action, describing the Taliban’s policies as “an attempt to legitimize the enslavement of Afghan girls.”
In the images released from this protest action, photos of Taliban leaders are placed under the feet of the protesting women; a symbolic action that, according to the organizers, was taken in protest of the Taliban’s misogynistic and restrictive policies.
These two women's rights organizations have called the Taliban's new constitution a "shameful document" and said that after closing schools, universities, and workplaces for women, the Taliban are now trying to legalize child marriage under the name of "Sharia."
The statement states that the Taliban want to push Afghan girls "from classrooms to forced marriage rooms" and destroy their future and childhood.
The Women's Movement Network and the United Afghan Women's Movement for Freedom have emphasized that child marriage is a "crime against childhood, humanity, and the future of Afghanistan" and that the Taliban are making girls victims of "legal rape and modern slavery" with these policies.
These organizations have also criticized the international community's silence on the situation of Afghan women and girls, calling it a "stain" on the record of international human rights organizations.
Finally, these groups have called on the United Nations, human rights organizations, and governments around the world to condemn the Taliban as perpetrators of “gender apartheid” and “crimes against children” and to prosecute the perpetrators of these policies internationally.
Protesters have emphasized that “Afghan girls are children, not tools for the satisfaction of extremist ideology” and should be in school, not in “child marriage prisons.”
Reporting by Tabassum Aslamyar
*Photo of Taliban leaders under the feet of the girls*
