Protest organisers cancelled rallies in Kabul on Thursday after the Taliban banned demonstrations 'for the time being' and warned violators 'will face severe legal action' after the group was humiliated by viral images of women standing up to them.
Video posted online this week showed brave women demanding their rights in front of Taliban fighters and protesting the lack of female representation in the all-male government formed on Tuesday.
The Islamists have taken a harsh stance to demonstrators - locking a crowd women in a basement to prevent them joining protests and whipping those who made to the rallies this week.
Harrowing images also emerged of journalists with angry welts and bruises after they were detained by Taliban fighters while covering protests.
And footage showed the militants threatening demonstrators with weapons and firing warning shots into the air to forcibly disperse crowds.
The protests are proving an early test for the Taliban who have seen a show of resistance since taking power on August 15 that was unthinkable under the extremist group's last regime in the 1990s.
There was a noticeably stronger Taliban presence on the streets of Kabul on Thursday morning as armed fighters - including special forces in military fatigues - stood guard on street corners and manned checkpoints to enforce the ban on demonstrations, according to AFP journalists.
Protest organisers cancelled rallies in Kabul on Thursday after the Taliban banned demonstrations 'for the time being' and warned violators 'will face severe legal action' after the group was humiliated by viral images of women standing up to them
Armed Taliban fighters were seen this week threatening protesters with weapons as they try to quell a growing wave of demonstrations against their rule
A Taliban fighter pulls his gun on a female protester in Kabul at a protest against the all-male administration on Tuesday
Afghan women who were veiled, but not wearing burqas, were seen marching through the streets of Kabul clutching 'freedom' signs and chanting this week before the Taliban banned protests
Harrowing images emerged of two journalists with angry welts and bruises after they were detained by Taliban fighters while covering protest
Neamat Naqdi (left) winces in pain as his colleagues help him remove his shirt after he was severely beaten by Taliban fighters while covering protests on Wednesday
Earlier this week armed fighters dispersed hundreds of protesters in cities across Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul, Faizabad in the northeast and in Herat in the west, where two people were shot dead.
There was a noticeably stronger Taliban presence on the streets of Kabul on Thursday morning as armed fighters - including special forces in military fatigues - stood guard on street corners and manned checkpoints, according to AFP journalists.
An organiser of a protest outside the Pakistan embassy - where gunmen sprayed shots into the air on Tuesday to disperse a rally - told AFP on Thursday it had been cancelled because of the overnight ban.
At the site of another planned protest in the city, there were no signs of a demonstration.
It comes after a Taliban interim government, drawn exclusively from loyalist ranks, was announced this week with established hardliners in all key posts and no women - despite previous promises of an inclusive administration for all Afghans.
Protests in recent days have targeted the cabinet. In Kabul yesterday a group of women bearing signs reading: 'A Cabinet without women is a failure,' held another protest in the Pul-e Surkh area of the city.
'The Cabinet was announced and there were no women in the Cabinet. And some journalists who came to cover the protest were all arrested and taken to the police station,' said a woman in a video shared on social media.
Pictured: A protest in Kabul on Tuesday, which came after the Afghan resistance leader called for a 'national uprising' against the group
There were reports of protesters, including women, being hit with the butts of rifles on Tuesday
Taliban forces walk in front of Afghan demonstrators as they shout slogans during an anti-Pakistan protest on Tuesday
A Taliban fighter stands guard in Kabul today after the Islamist group banned demonstrations 'for the time being' and warned of severe punishments for violators
It comes a day after Taliban fighters left two journalists with ugly welts and bruises after detaining them while they were covering protests.
The pair were picked up at a demonstration yesterday and taken to a police station in the capital, where they say they were punched and beaten with batons, electrical cables and whips after being accused of organising the protest.
'One of the Taliban put his foot on my head, crushed my face against the concrete. They kicked me in the head... I thought they were going to kill me,' photographer Nematullah Naqdi told AFP.
Naqdi and his colleague Taqi Daryabi, a reporter, who both work for Etilaat Roz (Information Daily) had been assigned to cover a small protest in front of a police station in Kabul by women demanding the right to work and education.
Naqdi said he was accosted by a Taliban fighter as soon as he started taking pictures.
'They told me 'You cannot film',' he said. 'They arrested all those who were filming and took their phones.'
Journalists Neamat Naqdi (left) and Taqi Daryabi (right) were detained and severely beaten by the Taliban while covering protests on Wednesday
Journalist Neamat Naqdi (right) was left with lash marks on his thighs after he was detained while covering protests in Kabul on Wednesday. Taqi Daryabi (left) was left with ugly welts and bruises on his lower back after spending hours in Taliban custody
Neamat Naqdi (left) and Taqi Daryabi (right) arrive back at their offices with facial wounds after being severally beaten by the Taliban who are seeking to crush a growing wave of protests
It comes after two journalists, including pictured Nemat Naqdi who works for Afghan news outlet Etilaat Roz, were detained and severely beaten by the Taliban while covering protests
Naqdi said the Taliban tried to grab his camera, but he managed to hand it to someone in the crowd. Three Taliban fighters caught him, however, and took him to the police station where the beatings started.
Taliban officials have not responded to repeated requests for comment.
'The Taliban started insulting me, kicking me,' said Naqdi, adding that he was accused of being the organiser of the rally. He asked why he was being beaten, only to be told: 'You are lucky you weren't beheaded'.
Naqdi was eventually taken to a crowded cell where he found his colleague, Daryabi, who had also been arrested and beaten.
'We were in so much pain that we couldn't move,' Daryabi said.
A few hours later the pair were released without explanation - sent on their way with a string of insults. 'They see us as enemies,' Taqi said.
The Taliban have claimed they will uphold press freedoms - in line with unspecified Islamic principles - although journalists are increasingly being harassed covering protests across the country.
In recent days, dozens of journalists have reported being beaten, detained or prevented from covering the protests, a show of resistance unthinkable under the Taliban's last regime in the 1990s.
Most are Afghan journalists, whom the Taliban harass more than the foreign media.
Zaki Daryabi, chief of the Etilaat Roz newspaper, said the Taliban's words rang hollow.
'This official speech is totally different from the reality that can be observed on the ground.'
There were other superficial signs of the Taliban tightening their grip.
Images on social media showed the country's main airport - previously dubbed Hamid Karzai International, after the first post-Taliban president - had been renamed Kabul International.
A public holiday scheduled for Thursday honouring Ahmad Shah Massoud, the famed anti-Taliban resistance fighter assassinated 20 years ago by an Al-Qaeda suicide squad, was also cancelled.
Meanwhile a senior Taliban official said yesterday that women would not be allowed to play cricket - a popular sport in Afghanistan - or possible any other sport because it was 'not necessary' and their bodies might be exposed.
On Thursday Cricket Australia said it would cancel a historic maiden Test match against Afghanistan unless the Taliban backtracks on the ban on women playing sport.
Taliban leaders have vowed to respect people's rights, including those of women, in accordance with Islamic sharia law, but those who have won greater freedoms over the past two decades are worried about losing them.
Furious protesters took to the streets of the capital on Tuesday after the leader of the anti-Taliban resistance called for a 'national uprising' against the militant group a day earlier.
Pictures showed female demonstrators arguing with Taliban fighters as one woman stared down an M-16 rifle pointed at her face.
Footage taken on a mobile phone shows a woman in an underground car park, panning around to reveal a crowd of women and some children gathered in the same space. The video is hastily cut short after a man's voice is heard shouting.
Miraqa Popal, the head of news at Afghanistan's Tolo News outlet, shared the clip on Twitter, writing that some eyewitnesses said the women were held in Kabul's Azizi Bank 'to prevent them from joining protesters'.
An Afghan woman shouts during a protest. Many women are concerned that hard-won rights will be curtailed under the new regime
A female protester speaks with a Taliban fighter during a protest in Kabul on Tuesday
Many women were among the protesters out in Kabul on Tuesday, where they were seen arguing with Taliban fighters
Footage taken on a mobile phone shows a woman in an underground car park, panning around to reveal a crowd of women and some children gathered in the same space
The Taliban this week announced an interim government made
