Authorities dispersed a women’s rally in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat on Sunday, with protesters claiming they were beaten by Taliban forces who fired shots in the air.
Scores of students turned out in protest against a Friday suicide bombing on a Kabul classroom that killed and wounded dozens of pupils as they prepared for exams.
The bomber blew himself up in the women’s section of a gender-segregated study hall in a Kabul neighbourhood home to the Hazara community.
The United Nations said at least 35 people were killed and another 82 wounded, most of them girls and young women.
On Sunday, more than 100 women — mostly Hazara — marched in Herat against the attack, which was one of the deadliest in recent years to strike the minority group.
“Education is our right, genocide is a crime,” the protesters chanted as they made their way from Herat University to the office of the provincial governor.
Dressed in black hijabs and headscarves, the protesters were stopped from reaching the office by heavily armed Taliban forces, who also ordered journalists not to report on the rally.
“We had no weapons but were only chanting slogans as we marched,” protester Wahida Saghri said. “But they beat us with sticks and even fired in the air to disperse us. Please carry our voice across the world because we are not safe here.”
Another group of women students prevented from protesting in the street staged a separate rally on the campus of the university, television footage showed.
“We were unable to go out as Taliban security forces shut the main gate of the university,” protester Zulaikha Ahmadi said.
“We then chanted slogans and called for the opening of the gate, but they dispersed us by firing into the air.” Demonstrators are heard in the footage shouting “open the door, open the door” after which a Taliban member beats them with a stick.
The group is then seen dispersing as gunshots are heard in the background.
Women’s rights protests have seen tense standoffs with authorities since the Taliban returned to power, with demonstrators detained and rallies broken up by aerial firing.
Female activists have still tried to stage sporadic protests, most in Kabul, against a slew of restrictions imposed on them by the Taliban.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack at the Kaaj Higher Educational Centre in the capital.
But the militant Islamic State group regards Shias as heretics and has previously staged attacks in the area targeting girls, schools and mosques. Hazaras have also been targeted in Herat in recent years.
The death toll of a suicide bombing on a Kabul classroom has risen to 53, the UN said , as Shia Hazara women who bore the brunt of the attack staged a defiant protest against the “genocide” of their community.
On Friday, a suicide attacker blew himself up in women’s section of Kaaj Higher Educational Centre, as hundreds of pupils were taking tests in preparation for university entrance exams in the city’s Dasht-i-Barchi area.
No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack. The militant Islamic State (IS) group, which regards Shia as heretics, has previously claimed attacks in the area targeting girls, schools and mosques.
The western neighbourhood is a predominantly Shia Hazara enclave.
“The latest casualty figures from the attack number at least 35 fatalities, with an additional 82 wounded,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.
Since returning to power last August, security has been a sensitive topic for the Taliban and the hardliners have often been keen to downplay attacks challenging their regime.
On Saturday, dozens of Hazara women defied a ban on rallies to protest the latest bloodshed in their community. Around 50 women chanted, “Stop Hazara genocide, it’s not a crime to be a Shia”, as they marched past a hospital in Dasht-i-Barchi where several victims of the attack were being treated.
Dressed in black hijabs and headscarves, the protesters carried banners that read: “Stop killing Hazaras”.
Witnesses said the suicide attacker detonated in the women’s section of the gender-segregated study hall. “Yesterday’s attack was against the Hazaras and Hazara girls,” protester Farzana Ahmadi, 19, said. “We demand a stop to this genocide. We staged the protest to demand our rights.”
Amnesty International said Friday’s attack was “a shamefaced reminder of the ineptitude and utter failure of the Taliban, as de-facto authorities, to protect the people of Afghanistan”.
Before the Taliban’s return to power last year, at least 85 people, mainly girls, were killed and about 300 were wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in Dasht-i-Barchi.
Again, no group claimed responsibility, but a year earlier IS claimed a suicide attack on an educational centre in the same area that killed 24. IS has emerged as a key security challenge for the Taliban, but officials claim their forces have defeated the jihadists.
