Women's freedom march banned in Kabul

KABUL, NOV. 27. A planned women's freedom march through the streets of Kabul today was banned on the orders of the Northern Alliance Interior Minister, Mr. Younis Qanooni, its organiser, Ms. Soraya Parlika, said.

``They said it was for security but that is just a pretext... They don't want women to improve,'' she said. Ms. Parlika said Mr. Qanooni personally rang her two days ago, before leaving for the Afghan talks outside Bonn, Germany, and said the march was not to go ahead.

``He said we should wait for an unspecified time.'' As women began gathering at her home early today, hopeful the decision would be reversed, Ms. Parlika received a follow-up call from an Interior Ministry official again refusing permission for the march. It was the second time in a week the women had been refused permission to walk from Ms. Parlika's suburban home to the main United Nations compound, with security given as the reason both times.

``I don't believe that. There would not be a problem, we have no need for security,'' Ms. Parlika said.

About 50 members of the newly formed Union of Women in Afghanistan were packed into her apartment, many of them wearing light head-scarves instead of the much-hated burqa, the all- encompassing garment covering the face and body which women were forced to wear after the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996. They were among the first to show their faces outdoors in the capital after the Northern Alliance retook the city on November 13.

- AFP

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Section  : International
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