Herat Women Protesting Exclusion From Politics Under Taliban Rule, Source Says

KABUL (Sputnik) - Women took to the streets in the western Afghan city of Herat on 2 September to protest exclusion from the country's political life under the Taliban*, a source told Sputnik.

Female activists, students, and government workers have demanded that their rights be guaranteed. They warned that no government would be stable without a female presence.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson, told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that there would be no female ministers in a new unity government, which he said the regime was on the verge of forming. He did not rule out that women would be allowed to take on minor roles in the administration, police, and judiciary.

Earlier in August, female demonstrators walked through the city unopposed, without anyone trying to stop them, chanting their demands, including respect for political, civil, and women's rights.

*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries.