In patriarchal Afghanistan, the battle for women's rights will depend in large part on men.

For that reason, the fact that on March 5, dozens of Afghan men took to the streets of Kabul wearing burqas in a protest  against violations of women’s rights in Afghanistan organised by a group called Afghan Peace Volunteers, offered fodder for conversations about gender inequality and violence in the country ahead of International Women's Day. 

One of the participants, 29-year-old Basir, said :

Our authorities will be celebrating International Women's Day in big hotels, but we wanted to take it to the streets. One of the best ways to understand how women feel is to walk around and wear a burqa.

In the 1990s during the Taliban regime, women were forced to wear burqas in public. This tradition, which for many is synonymous with repression, has remained common in Afghanistan even after the Taliban's ouster. 

As the rally took place another female Afghan artist walked around the capital wearing steel armour in the shape of a woman's body as a symbolic move to protest street harassment. 

The march to defend women's rights earned a mixed reaction. Some welcomed the act, some were confused and others condemned it.

One person protesting against the march called it a Western-orchestrated move.

Ahmad Mukhtar, an Afghan journalist, tweeted:

On the eve of March 8, Afghan men wore burqa to support women right.The question is why they wore Burqa??? pic.twitter.com/i4fWEIk6eq

— Ahmad Mukhtar (@AhMukhtar) March 5, 2015

 Zheela Nasari, a VOA journalist, tweeted:

#Burqa was forced on #Afghan women & we (men) wear to protest violence against #women: #EVAW https://t.co/LhyYlIGHuV pic.twitter.com/qrXv07zda7

— Zheela Nasari (@ZheelaJ) March 5, 2015

Raza Rumi tweeted: 

Don’t know how to react to this one.Complicated #Burqa-clad men march for women's rights in #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/mSBHRAXMPz v @mashable

— Raza Rumi (@Razarumi) March 6, 2015

But many encouraged the trend:

Glad people are waking up | Afghan men march in Burqa to demand women's rights http://t.co/mcUPbUf3sx @TarekFatah @tufailelif

— Neha Srivastava (@neha_aks) March 6, 2015

Afghan men protesting for women's rights. This is so bold loving it. https://t.co/gK762cUa6A

— ariana delawari (@arianadelawari) March 5, 2015

Fereshta Kazemi, an Afghan artist tellingly stated:

Proud of these Afghan men. Women's rights in Afghanistan can only go so far, until men stand for it too #ComeTogether pic.twitter.com/SLFmvuG9rY

— Fereshta Kazemi (@FereshtaKazemi) March 5, 2015

Although Afghanistan remains strongly conservative, there are signs the situation surrounding attitudes to gender is changing incrementally. In 2013, Al Arabiya reported that burqa businesses were going bust in the country's capital Kabul, “with the demand for burqas declining among young women who are increasingly going to school and taking office jobs”.

Nevertheless, the same article observed that the burqa was actually becoming more popular in the country's regions, partly because the anonymity it provides can give a woman security from attacks carried out by men.

Last year witnessed an unprecedented public mobilisation in response to a gang rape case in the country's Paghman province. While international human rights organisations were concerned that the groundswell of public opinion on#Paghman was in favour of giving the death penalty for the gang rapists, the protests surrounding the case marked an important turning point in a country where various forms of violence against women have traditionally not been discussed.

And in Kabul in particular, there are many things which are growing more common now, that were simply unimaginable during the Taliban era:

“@BBCWorld: This is Sara, a female taxi driver in Afghanistan http://t.co/BarfwiRvKk pic.twitter.com/Oj8XcP67B6

— Farangis Najibullah (@FarangisN) March 8, 2015

The Taliban, of course, have not disappeared, and their legacy continues to penetrate Afghan society in a number of ways, but what the last few years have shown is that there is no shortage of people in the country — men and women — that are prepared to stand up for women's rights in a range of different contexts.