Hundreds of women and men protested separately in Afghanistan demanding that the US lift sanctions

Hundreds of people protested this Wednesday in Kabul in segregated groups, men and women apart, to demand the release of the assets of the Asian nation, to which the Afghans were left without access after the sanctions imposed on the Taliban.

This is the first time that men and women have protested separately at the same time in Kabul since the Taliban came to power, and following the re-imposition of harsh rules on women.

“Our money, our rights, Biden!”, “We want our money, our children are hungry”, or “why the world is silent, let us live” were some of the slogans chanted by the protesters from their respective groups.

In front of the media cameras, those present criticized the president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the international community for their indifference towards the Afghan people, who are severely suffering the impact of economic sanctions.

“Joe Biden, it’s cold and we have no food for our children,” they said in another of his slogans.

“We are tired of the situation, poverty and hunger are ending our lives, but the assets of the Afghan people continue to be blocked by the United States, this is one of the causes of the economic crises in Afghanistan,” he told Efe Bibi Zarmina, one of the protesters.

Ajmal Sami, also present at the demonstration, claimed “the money that belongs to the Afghan people.”

“The United States must eliminate economic sanctions on Afghanistan, the policies of both the United States and the Taliban are the causes of hunger and starvation of the Afghans,” he told Efe.

Unlike other demonstrations that were harshly repressed by fundamentalists, this one was supported on social media by several Taliban members.

The protest videos were released by members of the Taliban government, including Ahmadullah Wasiq, deputy spokesman for the Islamist executive.

In a manifesto read at the event, people made appeals “to both the international community and the Taliban government” to improve the situation in which the population lives.

“The international community has to prove that its human rights motto is correct and release the assets of Afghan banks without any conditions,” they said in the letter.

Afghanistan has been mired in a serious economic and humanitarian crisis since the seizure of Kabul by fundamentalists on August 15.

Since then, the lack of support and recognition from the international community, as well as international economic sanctions and the United States to prevent the access of Islamist leaders, several of them considered global threats, to the international financial system, isolated the Asian nation. .

Now, the loss of value of the Afghan currency against the US dollar or the lack of cash in the banks and the Afghan financial system, together with the arrival of winter, threaten to plunge the local population into famine and chaos. (I)