Dozens of women in Feroz Koh, the capital city of Afghanistan’s central Ghor province, took up arms and marched on Sunday to show their defiance …
Dozens of women in Feroz Koh, the capital city of Afghanistan’s central Ghor province, took up arms and marched on Sunday to show their defiance against the advancing Taliban. The women said they would support “public mobilization” militias standing up even as Afghan army units surrender without a fight or flee before the Taliban onslaught. “They are standing by their brothers and are supporting the system, the people, and the country’s sovereignty,” an admiring resident of Ghor told Afghanistan’s Tolo News as the women marched through the provincial capital, some of them toting heavy weapons and rocket grenades. The Afghan central government appears torn between supporting the growing militia movement as much-needed reinforcements for underperforming security forces and worrying about “bad consequences” from heavily-armed, unregulated irregulars taking the field. “A situation that will later create bad consequences will not be allowed. They will first support us and then they will be included in the police, army, or the local NDS forces,” Afghan interior minister Gen. Abdul Sattar Mirzakawal warned. NDS is Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, the primary government military and intelligence agency. “We hear some words from some sides asking: Why have they gone to war? They should stay in the city and hand over the war to us.
