Afghan Woman Who Graduated From DU Leads Kabul Women's Protests Against Taliban

After the Islamic extremist group the Taliban took over the national capital and the major cities of Afghanistan, there have been at least two women protests even though on a small scale within five days of capture. These protests were reportedly led by 24-year-old Afghan girl Crystal Bayat. She is a graduate from Delhi University.

She returned to her country, Afghanistan in 2019. Her father works in the interior ministry while her mother is a teacher. Crystal Bayat has expressed that the women of Afghanistan are ready to wear a burkha but the Taliban government too needs to come halfway.

"If we let the Taliban win on this, then whatever progress women have made in the last 20 years will come undone. Women need to be made a part of the economic, administrative and political process," said the 24-year-old Delhi graduate, Crystal Bayat.

Crystal Bayat is reaching out to hundreds of Afghan women on Whatsapp and urging them to protest for their basic rights. She said that despite her efforts, only a handful of women are turning up. In the protest that took place on August 17, there were only four women and seven on the next day.

Barat told The Print that the Taliban threatened her during the protest many times. She said, "There is a threat to my life … I have been getting calls from people claiming to be from the Taliban all day. They keep telling me to back down, to stop. Even at the protest, when I was sloganeering, I was shamed for raising my voice. I was told it is haram for women to raise their voice."

She further added that Mahmood Alikhil who is a former Afghan minister helped her during the protests. "The Taliban came and broke our phone. They opened fire at our protest rally," she said.