Purple Saturdays Movement Calls for Uprising by Burning Images of Taliban Leaders

In the statement, published on Friday (31 January), the Purple Saturdays Movement emphasized that "over the past three years, the Taliban have continued to commit organized crimes against humanity by establishing a system of structural discrimination against women, conducting hundreds of desert courts involving women and children under 18, carrying out inhumane torture, forced displacement, and targeted killings of civilians in provinces such as Parwan, Kapisa, and Panjshir."

The movement described these actions as part of the Taliban's repressive, vengeful, and "ethnic cleansing" policies, which, they said, have largely gone unreported by the media.

The statement criticized the "disastrous delay and blatant avoidance of responsibility" by the international community and the United Nations, warning that this silence has allowed the Taliban to expand their crimes without accountability.

The movement called on the United Nations, Amnesty International, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the international community to promptly initiate impartial and transparent investigations into the Taliban's war crimes, civilian killings, and systematic torture.

Simultaneously with the release of the statement, members of the Purple Saturdays Movement set fire to images of Taliban leaders, including Hibatullah Akhundzada.

A member of the movement, referring to the deprivation of women from "all human and Islamic rights," addressed the people of Afghanistan, saying: "We declare our anger and hatred towards the terrorist group Taliban with cries for justice, fairness, and freedom. We urge you not to fear the Taliban and to rise up against the illegitimate, mono-ethnic, mono-gender, and misogynistic regime that has turned Islam and Sharia into tools of oppression."

The movement, highlighting the "deplorable" conditions in the Taliban's intelligence agency prisons, where thousands are reportedly tortured due to their ethnicity or language, called for immediate international oversight of these facilities.