Gathering at “Solidarity with Afghan Women” in Paris

France Press agency , Posted on Saturday, August 28, 2021 at 9:00 PM

One hundred people, gathered at the invitation of associations, unions and feminist parties, Saturday in Paris expressed their “solidarity” with Afghan women, “distinctive goals” of the Taliban, AFP journalists on the ground said.

Banners titled “Standing Solidarity with Afghan Women”, “Stand with Afghan Women Against the Taliban”, “Right of Asylum for Anyone Threatened”, and “Right of Asylum, Reception and Hospitality for Afghan Women” sang as protesters sang “Solidarity with Afghan Women”. women around the world.

In Afghanistan, “the specter of the years of lead appears. As a distinct target: the women,” the 30 or so organized associations worry in their call to demonstrate near the State Department. They claimed that “France must urgently welcome anyone who has become weak on its soil due to the Taliban’s coming to power.”

“We remember what happened between 1996 and 2001, when women in particular were no longer allowed to go out unaccompanied by a man, were no longer allowed to work, were forced to wear the burqa, etc.,” Susie Rogetman, spokeswoman for one of the organizers said. The National Rally for Women’s Rights told AFP.

For people who have been evacuated in France, we “want” that they “benefit from the right of asylum without any problem” and that “any threatened person who requests to come to France can do so, and that people who are already there asking for family reunification” can get it.

Among the protesters, Sandrine (first name changed) considered it “important to come”. “We are there to defend the women, but there are also many men who will suffer from the fact that we let them go,” she regrets to AFP.

Ruth, a 24-year-old student and “human rights activist in general,” sees a “scandalous” in the situation in Afghanistan and the “apathy of the international community.”

Eva, 53, “supports Afghan women and people.” Patrice Jacob, 34, a Generation S candidate in Paris, who came “in solidarity with Afghan women and all Afghans”, considers the number of Afghans evacuated to France “ridiculous”.

A young Afghan woman, hidden under a dark blue burqa, had a banner on her back that begged “After August 31, don’t forget them,” protesting in front of journalists against the Taliban “dictatorship”. She is 28 and has lived in France for 7 years, she said, but “the whole family is there.”