Protests in Afghanistan against the Taliban started on 17 August 2021 following the Fall of Kabul to the Taliban. These protests are held by Islamic democrats and feminists. Both groups are against the treatment of women by the Taliban government, considering it as discriminatory and misogynistic. Supported by the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, the protesters also demand decentralization, multiculturalism, social justice, work, education, and food. There have been pro-Taliban counterprotests.
The Taliban suppressed the protests with increasing violence as time went on, and began kidnapping activists. This policy ultimately resulted in the gradual end of the protests, with the last one in Kabul occurring on 16 January 2022. 2022 saw few protests until the December ban on women attending university, which led to protests in multiple cities that were quickly suppressed with force.
Background
During the 2021 Taliban offensive when Taliban insurgents captured large swathes of territory and assaulted several cities, a number of civilians started pro-government protests in opposition to the Taliban. On 2 August, large numbers of people in the western city of Herat took to their rooftops, using God is the greatest as a rallying cry. The next day, similar protests spread elsewhere; Kabul residents used the same rallying cry while gathering together in the streets waving the Afghan tricolour. It came shortly after a powerful bomb blast targeting the house of the defense minister was committed by the Taliban. The protests in Herat inspired protests in the provinces of Nangarhar, Khost, Kunar and Bamiyan.
On 15 August 2021, the Taliban captured Kabul. This sent many into panic, prompting evacuations of military, embassy staff, and partially, civilians.
Protests
2021
August
On 19 August 2021, small protests consisting of women were reported in Kabul, demanding equal rights for women.
Larger protests emerged in eastern Pashtun-inhabited cities the following day. On 18 August, the Taliban opened fire on demonstrators in Jalalabad, killing 3 and wounding more than a dozen. The Taliban had promised not to be brutal in the way they rule. Witnesses said the deaths happened when local residents tried to install Afghanistan's tricolour at a square in Jalalabad. There were also reports of people trying to plant the tricolour in the eastern cities of Khost and Asadabad.
The next day, 19 August, Afghan Independence Day, protests were reported as spreading to more cities, including large separate protests in Kabul, with 200 people gathered in one demonstration before it was broken up by force by the Taliban. Later on the 19th, some outlets reported that the protests in Kabul had swelled to thousands of protesters. There were multiple reports of the Taliban flag being torn down and replaced by the flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and protesters were reported as flying the latter flag. Several protesters were reported killed after they were fired upon while they were waving national flags during Afghan Independence Day in Asadabad, where "hundreds of people" were described as joining the protest. In Kabul on the 19th, a procession of cars and people carried a long Afghan tricolor in a symbol of defiance. In Khost Province on the 19th, the Taliban violently broke up another protest, and declared a 24-hour curfew; meanwhile, in Nangarhar Province, a video was posted showing a bleeding protester with a gunshot wound being carried away.
Amrullah Saleh, formerly the vice president and the declared acting "caretaker" President of Afghanistan by the Panjshir resistance per the Afghan constitution in the event of the flight abroad of former President Ashraf Ghani, saluted protesters "who carry the national flag and thus stand for dignity of the nation" on 19 August. However, the priority of the US is still geared towards securing the perimeter of the airport, as well as raising the number of evacuees out of the capital Kabul, Pentagon officials disclosed.
On 20 August, Afghan women held a protest gathering about their worries for the future and about women's participation in the new government. Human rights activist Fariha Esar stated, "We will not relinquish our right to education, the right to work, and our right to political and social participation."
