Taliban accused of abducting another women’s rights activist in Kabul

Several female protesters in Afghanistan are believed to have vanished in recent weeks

Afghan women rally against Taliban rule during a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, 28 December 2021 (EPA)

The Taliban have reportedly kidnapped a female activist from her home in Afghanistan after she took part in protests demanding equal rights for women.

Mursal Ayar was arrested in the capital Kabul on Wednesday and is thought to be the sixth protester to vanish in recent weeks, according to a report by the BBC.

The Taliban have denied detaining Ms Ayar, however, and a spokesperson for the group said they were looking into her case.

“This is a case which has just happened. We are investigating it,” Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi told the BBC.

Ms Ayar’s alleged abduction comes after the Associated Press reported that the Taliban had arrested women’s rights activist Tamana Zaryabi Paryani and her three sisters last month.

Ms Paryani had been among around 25 women who took part in an anti-Taliban protest against the compulsory wearing of the Islamic headscarf, the hijab, for women.

Footage of Ms Paryani was posted on social media before her abduction, which showed her screaming for help and saying that the Taliban were banging on her door.

“Help please, the Taliban have come to our home... only my sisters are home,” she is heard to say in the video.

A witness told the Associated Press that “they took four females away, all of them were sisters”.

However the spokesperson for the Taliban-appointed police in Kabul, General Mobin Khan, tweeted that Paryani’s video was a manufactured drama.

The UN’s human rights office on Saturday said that it was “very alarmed” over the continued disappearance of six people who were abducted in connection with the recent women’s rights protests.

A spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, Ravina Shamdasani, said: “We are gravely concerned for their well-being and safety.”

Ms Shamdasani also highlighted the cases of Parwana Ibrahim Khil and her brother-in-law, who were abducted while travelling in Kabul on 19 January.

She added: “Later than same evening, Tamana Paryani and her three sisters were taken from a house in the city. Both women had participated in a peaceful street demonstration on 16 January, advocating for the human rights of women to be respected.

“Since then, there have been reports coming in of house searches of other women in relation to their participation in protests.”

Since coming to power in mid-August, the Taliban have imposed widespread restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan.

They have been banned from many jobs, ordered to wear the hijab, and had their education largely restricted beyond the age of 12.