Rahila Dostum, daughter of the former vice president of Afghanistan, Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, was the first one allowed to rally against the Taliban government in Istanbul. “Resurrection of Women in Afghanistan” was the title of a gathering in İstanbuls district Zeytinburnu with hundreds Turkey based women from Afghanistan accompanying.
Rahila Dostum and a group of other women activists held a gathering to protest against the Taliban’s decisions to close the doors of schools and Universities to girls and to support Afghan women and girls who were denied education on Sunday 22 January in Istanbul, Turkey. In the gathering Rahela Dostum shared the agenda of her father’s meeting with the Turkish government. According to his daughter, Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, campaigned for Afghan immigrants in Turkey and appealed to the Turkish government to stop the deportation of Afghan refugees to Afghanistan. Rahila Dostum thanked the Turkish government for their support of Afghan girls and women and for the president’s speech about Afghan girls’ education rights in the media. Last week Turkish president Recep Tayyip Eroğan condemned the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education as “inhumane and non-Islamic.”
It is mentionable that it is the first anti-Taliban gathering in Turkey that the Turkish government has allowed since the takeover of the group back in 2021. Its seems as if the Turkish government is reconsidering its politics towards the Taliban especially after imposing inhumane rules against women and also after the usurpation of Uzbeks’ land and property. The Dostum Family represents a strong and feared Uzbek militia in Afghanistan and is known for its close ties to Turkey. Abdul Rashid Dostum is a controversial figure though. He was blamed for war crimes and atrocities against Taliban prisoners back in 2001 with an ongoing investigation.
Parwin Karimi (Text and Photos)