Twenty Afghan women demonstrated in Kabul on Sunday with cries of "Bread, work, freedom", to protest against the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on the freedoms of women in Afghanistan, AFP noted.

Since their return to power last August, fundamentalist Islamists have gradually eroded the freedoms won by women over the past 20 years since the fall of their previous regime (1996-2001).

“Education is my right! Reopen the schools! “, also chanted the demonstrators, many of whom wore veils covering their faces and who gathered in front of the Ministry of Education.

They walked a few hundred meters before being stopped by Taliban in civilian clothes, who came to disperse the demonstration, noted an AFP correspondent.

"We wanted to read a statement, but the Taliban didn't allow it," participant Zholia Parsi told AFP after the march.

"They took some girls' cellphones and also stopped us from taking pictures or videos of our protest," she added.

Since their return to power, the Taliban have imposed a series of restrictions on civil society, many of which are aimed at subjugating women to their fundamentalist conception of Islam.

They have largely excluded women from public employment, restricted their right to travel, and barred girls from middle and high school.

The latest restriction dates back to early May, when the government issued an edict, endorsed by Taliban and Afghan supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, making it compulsory for women to wear full-face veils in public.

The Taliban have clarified that their preference was for the burqa, this full veil most often blue and meshed at eye level, but that other types of veils revealing only the eyes would be tolerated.

They also felt that unless the women had a pressing reason to go out, it was "better for them to stay at home".

These new measures have sparked outrage from the international community.

On Friday, the Taliban rejected a call from the UN Security Council to reverse these restrictions, deeming the concerns expressed on these issues “unfounded”.

Over the past two decades, Afghan women had acquired new freedoms, returning to school or applying for jobs in all sectors of activity, even if the country remained socially conservative.