KABUL: Women activists in Kabul held up signs that read "why is the world watching us die in silence?" on Tuesday, protesting the international community's inaction on the crisis in Afghanistan. Around a dozen women risked the wrath of the Taliban, who have banned demonstrations and shut them down using violence since taking power in August, holding banners affirming their "right to education" and "right to work", before the Islamists stopped the press from approaching the march.

"We are asking the UN secretary-general to support our rights, to education, to work. We are deprived of everything today," Wahida Amiri, one of the organisers for the Spontaneous Movement of Women Activists in Afghanistan, told AFP. Their demonstration, addressing the "political, social and economic situation" in Afghanistan was initially planned to take place near the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).