Afghan rights activists open all-women library in Kabul

By Bilal Guler and Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat

KABUL (AA) - A group of Afghan women's rights activists have established a library in the capital Kabul to help improve access to education and public life for women and girls in the country, increasing cut off amid Taliban rule.

"Restrictions imposed on women by the Taliban are the reason for the opening of this library. Another reason is our desire to spread the culture of libraries among young people, especially women," said activist Laila Basim, who pioneered the establishment of the Women's Library.

Underlining that women have lost much of their rights under Taliban rule, Basim told Anadolu Agency that they hoped to organize an exhibition for books in the coming days and invite members of the Taliban.

"We will invite the Taliban so that they can see that their ideas about women are wrong and that religion does not say what they say. Our goal is to show them that, as women, we believe in culture, freedom and equality," she said.

The Women's Library was opened in cooperation with the Crystal Bayat foundation, which focuses on women's rights in Afghanistan.

After the Taliban took over the country last year, Afghan women were stripped of their rights in many areas and have since become less visible in public areas. Thousands have lost their jobs or were forced to resign, both in government institutions and in the private sector.

Girls have also been prevented from attending middle and high school.

Many Afghan women have demanded their rights be reinstated by taking to the streets, protesting, and organizing campaigns.

- Call on international community

Calling on international community not to abandon the women of Afghanistan, Basim said that if other countries recognize the Taliban, this would amount to "great suffering and betrayal for a generation."

"As the women of Afghanistan, we would never forgive the international community," she asserted.

The library, which has an all-women staff and serves only women, holds nearly 2,000 books in more than 20 fields from literature to art and from science to politics and history.

It contains books in English, Dari (the Afghan dialect of Persian), Pashto, and Arabic, the library will serve six days a week between 8.00 a.m. and 4.00 p.m.

* Writing by Seda Sevencan