Kabul: Afghan Women Stage Protest Against Taliban

This is the single image I’ve seen of anyone in Afghanistan wearing virus masks. Are we sure this isn’t a crisis actor hoax?

Finally, women are taking a stand against the patriarchy.

CNN:

A group of Afghan women activists staged a small protest in Taliban-controlled Kabul Friday calling for equal rights and full participation in political life, CNN has confirmed.

In spite of the risk, a group called the Women’s Political Participation Network marched on the street in front of Afghanistan’s Finance Ministry, chanting slogans and holding signs demanding involvement in the Afghan government and calling for constitutional law.

Footage showed a brief confrontation between a Taliban guard and some of the women, and a man’s voice could be heard saying, “Go away!” before chanting resumed.

The gathering was relatively small — video of the scene livestreamed by the group showed just a few dozen demonstrators — but represented an unusual public challenge to Taliban rule.

The militant group are involved in internal discussions about forming a government, but have already signaled that working women should stay at home, and militants have in some instances ordered women to leave their workplaces.

Exactly nine years ago, I wrote a screenplay for a film entitled “Working Girl” about Afghan women who stage a dance show to convince the Taliban that they’re capable of holding their own in the world.

I originally wrote the film to star Whitney Houston as Hajibi Ackbar Muhammed. However, she died days after my film was greenlit by Warner Bros and it then got caught in development hell as the producers were auditioning for sassy black women who could pass as Arabs (those Jews didn’t seem interested in the Pashtun thing, and actually at times seemed to believe that Afghanistan is in Africa).

The film is actually mostly a rip-off of The Full Monty. But it’s also similar to Grease in a lot of ways.

Most of the film is about the girls struggling to learn their dance routines. The film is a musical, and the girls often break out into song while studying dance.

Then at the end, there is an old man who realizes the power of the girls’ dance routines and tricks the Taliban into coming to see the show.

It’s a perfect game plan for an inspirational film that could have a real impact on the world. Actually, instead of women having to stage dance routines for the Taliban to get their freedom, we could just show my film to the Taliban and it would have the same effect.