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Mursal Nabizada, a women’s rights activist and former member of the Afghan Parliament, was killed and her 17-year-old brother was wounded by “unknown” gunmen at her home in Kabul on January 15, 2023. After the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and the Afghan parliament was dissolved, she quit and lived in Kabul. She criticized the misogynist, anti-science, anti-civil liberties policies of the religious Taliban regime. She supported the spontaneous movement of Afghan women who fight for education, work, freedom and women’s rights. Before her death, Ms. Nabizada had raised her concerns several times with her friends and some national and international organizations defending women’s rights regarding security threats to her life. But unfortunately, no human rights organization and no country claiming to defend human rights and women’s rights did not help Ms. Nabizada in time until she was finally killed.

Mursal was 32 years old and was from the eastern province of Nangarhar. Before being elected to the Wolesi Jirga of Afghanistan (Afghan Parliament), she was the head teacher of a school and always participated in social activities.

After the Taliban came to power and adopted a misogynistic and vengeful policy against educated and intellectual women of Afghanistan, the intelligence of the Taliban under the name of « unknown persons » killed dozens of women and imprisoned and tortured hundreds of others.On the one hand, the Taliban want girls to grow up illiterate by closing the gates of schools and educational centers for girls, and by banning girls from studying in universities, they deprive women and girls of higher education. On the other hand, women who are highly educated and who understand and defend their rights are killed by the Taliban to eliminate any resistance to their rule. According to their specific religious beliefs, the Taliban deny the human identity of women and do not consider them entitled to any human and civil rights.

« Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women » strongly condemns the innocent murder of Mursal Nabizada and holds the misogynistic Taliban regime responsible for it. Because the Taliban’s systematic exclusion of women from various social fields, which means promoting violence and formalizing sexual apartheid against women, has caused an increase in violence against women at the level of families and society.

« Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women » calls on women’s rights organizations, human rights organizations and progressive forces of the world to support the brave struggle of Afghan women and girls against the theocratic and misogynistic regime. We should not be more spectators of killing, torturing and imprisoning women by the Taliban. Currently, hundreds of intellectual women protesting the policies of the Taliban are hiding due to security threats from the Taliban, and they may face the fate of Mursal Nabizada at any moment. They need your help and immediate action today, tomorrow may be too late.

Spontaneous Movement of Afghan women

January 18, 2023

Kabul, Afghanistan

These days, protesting women in some provinces of Afghanistan have launched a protest campaign called « from house to street to overthrow the Taliban » against the despotic and misogynist regime of the Taliban. Due to the brutal repression of the Taliban, they are forced to share their voices with mass media and people in different ways. They make short video clips with their faces covered, writing some of their slogans and demands on flipcharts and reading:

• I was a student. But because I am a woman, I am not allowed to go to university.
• I am a journalist, but I do not have the right to freedom of expression
• I was an employee in an NGOs, but I am not allowed to work.
• The Taliban have imprisoned us in our homes because we are women. But we will not give up.
• Death to the misogynistic dictator
• From the house to the street to overthrow the Taliban

One of the protesting women says that she not only as a woman but also as an Afghan citizen wants the Taliban regime to be overthrown. She states that she never like to study, work or live under the umbrella of the Taliban government.

Every night in Kabul and Herat, protesting women of « Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women » write anti-Taliban slogans and their demands on city walls and streets, but the Taliban government erases them. The anti-feminist government of the Taliban is afraid of women’s demonstrations and the voice of women’s awakening and protest, and they always try to suppress it. Taliban intelligence is trying to identify, arrest, torture and even kill protesting women.

Afghan women’s protests began in Kabul and other Afghan cities at the same time as the Taliban came to power in August 2021. From the beginning, these protests were accompanied by the slogan « bread, work, freedom ». The spontaneous movement of Afghan women never left the battlefield due to the fear of being beaten, arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the Taliban and they continue to fight for their denied rights.

Although some women affiliated with  the « National Resistance Front » under the leadership of former warlords and human rights violators, as well as some famous women who held high positions in Ashraf Ghani’s government, tried to sabotage the protest of brave women. They attempted to sell Afghan women in compromise and deal with the Taliban and Taliban supporters to get their share in the Taliban government under the so-called inclusive government. But the women and girls of Afghanistan are now fully alert and have the experience not to fall prey to the deception of the open and secret deals of the Taliban and resistance fighters affiliated with warmonger countries.

The spontaneous movement of Afghan women not only fights for « bread, right to work, education and freedom » for women, but also believes that in the presence of the Taliban government or the so-called comprehensive government consisting of the Taliban, former warlords and corrupt officials in Ashraf and Karzai government, it is impossible to provide women’s rights and freedom and social welfare. Therefore, the women and people of Afghanistan neither accept the Taliban government nor want the return of the corrupt officials of the previous government. Afghan women are in favor of the immediate overthrow of the Taliban government and the establishment of a democratic and secular government.