Taliban f ire shots to break up women’s demo

TALIBAN fighters fired bullets and tore down banners as they broke up a rare women’s rally in the Afghanistan capital yesterday.

Around 40 women gathered in Kabul two days before the one-year anniversary of the hardline Islamists’ takeover. In front of the education ministry building, they paraded with placards, some of which read ‘August 15 is a black day’.

Tens of thousands of girls have been shut out of secondary schools in the last year, and women have been barred from returning to many government jobs.

Some protesters refused to wear face veils and wore heels in defiance at rulers who have sought to reverse the gains made by women during two decades of Western intervention. Referring to the country’s food shortages, the women chanted ‘bread, work and freedom’ and shouted: ‘Justice, justice. We’re fed up with ignorance.’

Some were reportedly chased and beaten by Taliban soldiers.