Female activists Tamana Zaryabi Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimkhel were reportedly taken from their homes as part of a roundup of participants in recent protests for women’s rights and were not heard from since last week.
U.S. special envoy for afghan women, girls, and human rights, Rina Amiri, said with the special representative Tom West pressed for the release of missing activists Tamana Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimkhel and a former government employee Alia Azizi during Oslo talks.
“Raids [and] arrest of protestors need to end,” she tweeted.
Amiri added they also pressed for “concrete action” on education, work and human rights during the talks, she said.
On January 16, Paryani and Ibrahimkhel participated in a protest in Kabul to chant for equal rights and protest against restrictions on women by the Islamic Emirate.
Paryani posted a video on social media on January 19 from the moment before the men, who she said were Islamic Emirate members, broke into her house. Ibrahimkhel was similarly abducted from her house.
Since then, their whereabouts remain unknown.
The Islamic Emirate has not officially confirmed the arrest of these two female activists.
But acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi reportedly told women representatives at Oslo talks there were bad people among the Islamic Emirate whom it was expelling and said such elements may have detained the women.
He said the situation was under investigation.
Amnesty International and the United Nations Assistance Mission as well as rights groups also called for investigations into the matter and immediate release of the activists.
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