Afghanistan: Students protest after school bombing

More than a hundred female students, most from the minority Hazara community, demonstrated in the western Afghan city of Herat on Sunday to denounce the suicide bombing that killed Friday in Kabul , at least 35 people including 20 young girls.

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shouted the young girls on Sunday who started a march from the University of Herat towards the headquarters of the province, noted an AFP correspondent.

But the demonstrators, who denounced the attack committed Friday against the women of their community, were stopped before reaching their goal by heavily armed Taliban.

Attack not yet claimed

On Friday morning, a man blew himself up in a classroom of a training center in the capital preparing students for their university exams, killing at least 35 people, including 20 women, and injuring 82, according to the report of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Manua).

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Several hundred students were gathered to take an exam in this establishment located in the district of Dasht-e-Barchi which is home to the Shiite Hazara minority of the Afghan capital.

In the room, the girls were separated from the boys, and were the main victims of the assailant who appeared at the front of the room where they were gathered.

The attack has not been claimed.

But in the past, several attacks against the Hazaras have been claimed by I-K, the regional branch of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which considers them heretics and opposes the education of girls.

The Taliban also consider the Hazara community to be pagans, and human rights groups have often accused them of targeting them.

Sensitive issue

Since the Taliban regained power in August 2021, women's protests, which rarely gather more than 40 people, have become risky, with many demonstrators having been arrested.

Gatherings of women, notably for the right to study, were also interrupted by Taliban firing shots in the air.

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Girls' education is an extremely sensitive issue in Afghanistan, a country with a Sunni majority.

The Taliban banned secondary education (middle and high school) for girls.

On the other hand, female students are admitted to university, but their number should decrease over the years, for lack of having been to college and high school.