Afghan women barred from Taliban takeover anniversary celebrations in Kabul

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan women were barred from attending celebrations marking the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power on Friday.

Some 10,000 men gathered across the capital, Kabul, to watch Defense Ministry helicopters scatter flowers to the crowds below.

Three of the six “flower shower” locations were already off-limits to women because they have been prohibited from entering parks and recreational areas since November 2022.

The Taliban seized Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, as the U.S. and NATO withdrew their forces at the end of a two-decade war.

Since then, they have imposed their interpretation of Islamic law on daily life, including sweeping restrictions on women and girls, based on edicts from their leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Friday’s anniversary program, which also comprised speeches from key Cabinet members, was only for men. An outdoor sports performance, initially expected to feature Afghan athletes, did not take place.

Rights groups, foreign governments, and the U.N. have condemned the Taliban for their treatment of women and girls, who remain barred from education beyond sixth grade, many jobs, and most public spaces.

Members of the United Afghan Women’s Movement for Freedom staged an indoor protest on Friday in northeast Takhar province against Taliban rule.

“This day marked the beginning of a black domination that excluded women from work, education, and social life,” the movement said in a statement shared with The Associated Press. “We, the protesting women, remember this day not as a memory, but as an open wound of history, a wound that has not yet healed. The fall of Afghanistan was not the fall of our will. We stand, even in the darkness.”

There was also an indoor protest in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Afghan women held up signs that said “Forgiving the Taliban is an act of enmity against humanity” and “August 15th is a dark day.”

The women were fully veiled, except for their eyes, in the photographs.

Taliban leader warns God will punish the ungrateful

Earlier in the day, the Taliban leader warned God would severely punish Afghans who were ungrateful for Islamic rule in the country, according to a statement.

Akhundzada, who is seldom seen in public, said in a statement that Afghans had endured hardships and made sacrifices for almost 50 years so that Islamic law, or Sharia, could be established. Sharia had saved people from “corruption, oppression, usurpation, drugs, theft, robbery, and plunder.”

“These are great divine blessings that our people should not forget and, during the commemoration of Victory Day (Aug. 15), express great gratitude to Allah Almighty so that the blessings will increase,” said Akhundzada in comments shared on the social platform X.

“If, against God’s will, we fail to express gratitude for blessings and are ungrateful for them, we will be subjected to the severe punishment of Allah Almighty,” he said.

Cabinet members gave speeches listing the administration’s achievements and highlighting diplomatic progress. Those who spoke included Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani.

On Wednesday, at a Cabinet meeting in Kandahar, Akhundzada said the stability of the Taliban government lay in the acquisition of religious knowledge.

He urged the promotion of religious awareness, the discouragement of immoral conduct, the protection of citizens from harmful ideologies, and the instruction of Afghans in matters of faith and creed, according to a statement shared by government spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat.

Akhundzada ordered the Kabul Municipality to build more mosques, and there was a general focus on identifying means to “further consolidate and fortify” the Islamic government, said Fitrat.

This year’s anniversary celebrations are more muted than last year’s, when the Taliban staged a military parade at a U.S. airbase, drawing anger from President Donald Trump about the abandoned American hardware on display.

The country is also gripped by a humanitarian crisis made worse by climate change, millions of Afghans expelled from Iran and Pakistan, and a sharp drop in donor funding.