The United Nations asked the Taliban to provide information on two other feminist activists allegedly detained by the movement this week, bringing the total number of militants missing this year to four.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said Thursday night that it had requested “urgent information” from the Interior Ministry “for the latest arrests by the Taliban of two new feminist militants reported in the last 24 hours. “.
The United Nations “repeats its call to release all ‘disappeared’ feminist activists, as well as their families,” the institution added.
“These unjust arrests must stop. If the Taliban seek recognition from the Afghan people and the world, they must respect the human rights of Afghans, particularly those of women, including freedom of expression,” the US emissary tweeted on Friday. for the rights of Afghan women, Rina Amiri.
UNAMA did not release the names of the two militants, but according to another opposition activist contacted by AFP, Zahra Mohammadi and Mursal Ayar were arrested this week.
Zahra is “a dentist and works in a clinic. She was arrested,” explained this militant requesting anonymity.
Mursal was arrested on Wednesday after a colleague asked her for her address to deliver her salary, the activist said. “This is how she was caught. The Taliban found her and arrested her,” she detailed.
Mursal’s father was also arrested, according to this activist, who initially mistakenly announced the arrest of Zahra’s father.
Two weeks ago, two other militants, Tamana Zaryabi Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimkhel, were reported missing, a few days after they had participated in a demonstration in Kabul for women’s rights.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, expressed concern on Tuesday about their fate and that of the four relatives who disappeared with them.
The Taliban deny any involvement in his disappearance and say they have opened an investigation.
Since their return to power in August, the Islamist fundamentalists claim to have modernized from the brutality of their first regime in Afghanistan (1996-2001).
But soon after, they fired girls from many public universities and institutes, excluded women from most public jobs and forced them to be accompanied by a male relative on long journeys.
Faced with the deep humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Western countries have made respect for human rights an essential condition for an eventual release of international aid.