Taliban gunmen opened fire in the air on Saturday in the Afghan capital Kabul to disperse a demonstration organized by women demanding their rights to work and political participation, as well as having education.

About 40 women chanted "bread, work and freedom" while marching in front of the Education Ministry building in Kabul; however, they were dispersed by guns fired into the air, an AFP correspondent reported.

Afg women assembled in Kabul today to protest for their rights: "Education. Freedom. Work. Food."

Taliban respinded by dispersing them &shooting at them. Dozens of women, plus two journalists were abducted/arrested by taliban. #DoNotRecogniseTaliban pic.twitter.com/fcTtQ0QDlP

— 🇦🇫Afghanistan Fact Checks🔎 (@AfgFactChecks) August 13, 2022

One banner the demonstrators held read "August 15 is a black day" as they demanded their rights for work and political participation.

"Justice, justice," they chanted.

"Unfortunately, the Taliban from the intelligence service came and fired in the air," said one of the organizers of the march, Zholia Parsi.

women’s once again came to the streets and #protested against the Taliban in Kabul .

Taliban #dispersed_women’s protest by #shooting. pic.twitter.com/rxJ6hMG67e

— Afghanistan Resistance Panjshir Valley💚🤍🖤 (@Valley_012) August 13, 2022

In March, the Taliban closed secondary schools for girls in Afghanistan, hours after they reopened, saying they would remain "closed until a plan is drawn up in accordance with Islamic law and Afghan culture."

Last May, the country's supreme leader and chief of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, ordered all Afghan women to cover their faces in public, one of the harshest restrictions against women since the movement's full control over Afghanistan.

These measures show a "pattern of absolute gender segregation and are aimed at making women invisible in the society," Richard Bennett, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul during a visit in May.