After being shut out from the Taliban‘s newgovernment, women increased pressure on Afghanistan‘s new rulers with a numberof protests Wednesday, at least one of which was broken up by Taliban fighterswho whipped some of the demonstrators and arrested local journalists.
The protests came one day after the Talibanannounced an interim Cabinet composed exclusively of the group’s stalwarts,with no women or former political figures and few minorities. Although therallies were small, with only a few dozen women in each case, they put the newgovernment to the test after it declared that participating in — and covering —protests is illegal without government permission.
The Taliban authorities took the two men to apolice station and put them in separate cells before severely beating them withcables, according to Etilaat-e Roz.
They were both released on Wednesday and havebeen receiving medical treatment in hospital for injuries to their backs andfaces.
Zaki Daryabi, editor-in-chief of Etilaat-eRoz, said: "Two of my colleagues from who were detained by Taliban,beaten for four hours."
He added: "Under constant and brutaltorture of the Taliban, the reporters lost their consciousness four times.”
"This is unacceptable. We want theTaliban to bring their soldiers to justice. We also all the media organisationsstand together against this unacceptable torture."
A video posted on social media showed aTaliban fighter whipping one of the demonstrators as several women screamed andhurried away.
Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director atHuman Rights Watch, said: "Taliban authorities claimed that they wouldallow the media to function so long as they 'respected Islamic values', butthey are increasingly preventing journalists from reporting on demonstrations.”
"The Taliban need to ensure that alljournalists are able to carry out their work without abusive restrictions orfear of retribution."
Human Rights Watch also reported that theTaliban authorities also detained a photojournalist named Wahid Ahmadi fromTolonews on Tuesday and released him later that day.