“They took four females away,all of them were sisters,” the witness said,adding that one of the four was Paryani,the activist.
The witness spoke on condition of anonymity,fearing Taliban reprisal.
The spokesman for the Taliban-appointed police in Kabul,General Mobin Khan,tweeted that Paryani’s social video post was a manufactured drama. A spokesman for the Taliban intelligence,Khalid Hamraz,would neither confirm nor deny the arrest.
However,he tweeted that “insulting the religious and national values of the Afghan people is not tolerated anymore” – a reference to Sunday’s demonstration during which the protesters appeared to burn a white burqa,the all-encompassing traditional head-to-toe female garment.
Hamraz accused rights activists of maligning Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers and their security forces to gain asylum in the West.
Since sweeping to power in mid-August,the Taliban have imposed widespread restrictions,many of them directed at women.
Women have been banned from many jobs outside the health and education field,their access to education has been restricted beyond sixth grade and they have been ordered to wear the hijab.
The Taliban have,however,stopped short of imposing the burqa,which was compulsory when they previously ruled the country in the 1990s.
At Sunday’s demonstration in Kabul,women carried placards demanding equal rights and shouted:“Justice!” They said they could not be forced to wear the hijab. Organisers of the demonstration said Paryani attended the protest,which was dispersed after the Taliban fired tear-gas into the crowd.
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Paryani belongs to a rights group known as Seekers of Justice,which organised several demonstrations in Kabul. Its members have not spoken publicly of her arrest but have been sharing her video.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch criticised the crackdown,saying that since taking over Afghanistan,the Taliban “have rolled back the rights of women and girls,including blocking access to education and employment for many.”
“Women’s rights activists have staged a series of protests;the Taliban has responded by banning unauthorised protests,” the watchdog said in a statement after Sunday’s protest.
The Taliban have increasingly targeted Afghanistan’s rights groups,as well as journalists,with local and international television crews covering demonstrations often detained and sometimes beaten.
Also Thursday,the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement asking the Taliban to investigate a recent attack on a documentary filmmaker Zaki Qais,who said two armed men,who identified themselves as Kabul police officials,entered his home and beat him. One tried to stab him,according to Steven Butler,the CPJ’s Asia program co-ordinator.
“Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers must immediately launch an investigation to identify and bring to justice those who attacked journalist Zaki Qais,” said Butler.
“The Taliban’s continued silence on these repeated attacks on journalists undermines any remaining credibility of pledges to allow independent media to continue operating.”
Last week the CPJ sought information on an attack on another Kabul-based journalist,Noor Mohammad Hashemi,deputy director for the non-profit Salam Afghanistan Media Organisation,who was beaten up by three unidentified men.
AP