KABUL: More than a dozen Afghan women protested briefly in Kabul Thursday, calling for their rights to be recognized on the eve of the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Afghan women have been squeezed out of public life since the Taliban’s return to power in August last year, but small groups have staged flash protests that are usually quickly shut down, sometimes violently.
“We will fight for our rights to the end and we will not surrender,” read a sign in the Dari language carried by one of the protesters.
Most of the group wore dark sunglasses, their heads covered with a veil and a surgical mask obscuring their face.
Taliban fighters kept a close eye on proceedings, while cars marked with the logo of the intelligence services circled the neighborhood.
Most women government workers have lost their jobs — or are being paid a pittance to stay at home — since the Taliban returned to power. Women have also been barred from traveling without a male relative, and must cover up with a burqa or hijab when outside the home.
Earlier this month the Taliban barred women from entering parks, funfairs, gyms and public baths.
Schools for teenage girls have also been shuttered across most of the country.
The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is usually marked around the world on November 25.
According to the UN, violence against women and girls remains the most widespread human rights violation in the world, affecting one in three women — a figure largely unchanged over the past 10 years.
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Afghan women protest on eve of UN day against violence
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Afghan women protest on eve of UN day against violence
- Afghan women have been squeezed out of public life since the Taliban’s return to power in August last year
- Most women government workers have lost their jobs since the Taliban returned to power
US sympathies shift to Palestinians from Israelis for first time: Gallup poll
- Poll: 41 percent of Americans sympathize more with the Palestinians and 36 percent sided with Israel
WASHINGTON: Americans for the first time sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis in their conflict, according to a Gallup poll released Friday, after the devastating Gaza war.
Views on the Middle East divide sharply along partisan lines, with the shift over the past year the result of more independents souring on Israel.
Overall, 41 percent of Americans sympathize more with the Palestinians and 36 percent sided with Israel, the poll said, with the rest undecided or saying they favored both or neither.
The gap is not statistically significant, but it marks the first time since Gallup asked the question more than two decades ago that Israel was not on top.
It also marks a sharp difference from just a year ago, when Israel led in sympathies 46 to 33 percent.
When asked about their sympathies, independents sided with the Palestinian people by 11 percentage points.
Members of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party continued to back Israel strongly, with 70 percent siding with Israel, although that figure has declined by 10 percentage points over the past decade.
Democrats’ views of Israel have grown increasingly negative since a decade ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly broke with then US president Barack Obama on his diplomacy with Iran.
Israel since then has moved sharply to the right. Some Democratic voters faulted former president Joe Biden for not doing more to rein in Israel in its devastating offensive in Gaza following the unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
In the latest poll, 65 percent of Democrats sympathized with the Palestinians and 17 percent with Israel.
Gallup surveyed 1,001 US adults by telephone from February 2 to 16.
Views on the Middle East divide sharply along partisan lines, with the shift over the past year the result of more independents souring on Israel.
Overall, 41 percent of Americans sympathize more with the Palestinians and 36 percent sided with Israel, the poll said, with the rest undecided or saying they favored both or neither.
The gap is not statistically significant, but it marks the first time since Gallup asked the question more than two decades ago that Israel was not on top.
It also marks a sharp difference from just a year ago, when Israel led in sympathies 46 to 33 percent.
When asked about their sympathies, independents sided with the Palestinian people by 11 percentage points.
Members of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party continued to back Israel strongly, with 70 percent siding with Israel, although that figure has declined by 10 percentage points over the past decade.
Democrats’ views of Israel have grown increasingly negative since a decade ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly broke with then US president Barack Obama on his diplomacy with Iran.
Israel since then has moved sharply to the right. Some Democratic voters faulted former president Joe Biden for not doing more to rein in Israel in its devastating offensive in Gaza following the unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
In the latest poll, 65 percent of Democrats sympathized with the Palestinians and 17 percent with Israel.
Gallup surveyed 1,001 US adults by telephone from February 2 to 16.
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