Afghans marching in the streets, standing up for their rights, using their voices to protest, does not bode well for the Taliban. Rather than scaring the populace with their attacks, roadside bombs, suicide bombs, and assassinations, they are emboldening it to stand up.
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September 27, 1996, the Taliban took Kabul. The first thing they did was brutally execute President Najibullah and leave him hanging from a lamppost for all to see.

Exactly 14 years later, hundreds of Afghans marched in Kabul to protest the recent assassination of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of the High Peace Council, assassinated by the Taliban two weeks ago. Chanting "death to the Taliban," "Death to Pakistan," the protest remained peaceful. Organized by Amerullah Saleh, the former spy chief, demonstrators carried pictures of other key Northern Alliance figures slain by the Taliban in recent months, including General Mohammad Daud Daud, the police commander of northern Afghanistan who was killed in June.

A written statement on the Voice of Jihad stated that revolutions are no substitute for jihad. Guess the Taliban aren't fans of social uprisings like those seen in the Arab Spring? Can't say I'm surprised, Afghans marching in the streets, standing up for their rights, using their voices to protest does not bode well for the Taliban. Rather than scaring the populace with their country-wide attacks, roadside bombs, suicide bombs, and assassinations, they are emboldening it to stand up.

Speak with the majority of Afghan citizens about life under the Taliban and their willingness to return to that era and you are typically met with a resounding, "no thank you please." It was a time of darkness for men and women alike, where fear controlled the country. Fear breeds in silence, the only way to combat this elusive foe is standing up publicly against it. Voicing your opposition. The very freedoms we too often in the West take for granted, the freedom of assembly and the freedom of speech, are those that can inspire change.

Nearly three dozen young women marched in the streets last July to protest public harassment. Organized by Young Women for Change, an emerging feminist group in Kabul, the women carried signs that stated, "It's my street, too," becoming the second such time in recent years that women have organized publicly to voice their rights.

"By holding such marches and campaigns we want to draw the attention of the public, the government and the international community to this problem," said Noor Jahan Akbar, the 19-year-old founder.

It is still unknown if protests like the one today may become more commonplace in Afghanistan, lesser known still if they will remain peaceful or be railroaded by those wishing to create more chaos. Could it signal an Arab Spring-like movement, seen throughout the Middle East this year, or the start of another civil war? Only time will tell. But the right to assemble publicly, to demand equality, peace, and justice are rights worth taking to the street.

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