Groups of Afghan women have been boldly gathering in the cities of Kabul and Herat, seeking equality and basic rights to be included in the Taliban-controlled government.

On Saturday, the women protesters sought to reach the former government offices in Kabul but were halted by Taliban guards. It was just one of the several protests held by women this past week.

A video shared by TOLOnews, a 24-hour news channel in Afghanistan, showed guards appearing to be cooperative and claiming that they would get the protestors' messages sent to elders.

But the video also revealed a woman shouting “why are you hitting us?”

Zabihullah Mujahid, a top Taliban official, said that the Taliban arrested four men who struck protesters and held journalists at gunpoint Saturday in breaking up a women’s rights’ demonstration in Kabul.

Muhammad Jalal, a member of the Taliban's cultural commission, posted on Twitter that the protests were "a deliberate attempt to cause problems," and that "these people don't even represent 0.1% of Afghanistan."

But other accounts revealed that the women were met with harsh violence.

​​"Together with a group of our colleagues, we wanted to go near the former government offices for a protest. But before we got there, the Taliban hit women with electric tasers, and they used tear gas against women. They also hit women on the head with a gun magazine, and the women became bloody. There was no one to ask why," a former government employee, who identified herself as "Soraya," and attended the protest, told Reuters.

Afghan women are reportedly afraid of a return to when harsh punishments and extremely limited rights were common. Before the U.S. entered the Afghanistan, many women could not work or even go outside without covering their faces.

"Twenty-five years ago, when the Taliban came, they prevented me from going to school," journalist Azita Nazimi told TOLO.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Amnesty International noted in 2014 that "progress has been made to protect the rights of women in Afghanistan" after the Taliban was dismantled by U.S. armed forces.

Some question if the Taliban are able to handle a functional new government after decades of instability.

On Saturday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley cast doubt on the future of Afghanistan.

"My military estimate is that the conditions are likely to develop of a civil war. I don't know if the Taliban is going to be able to consolidate power and establish governance," Milley told Fox News.

If it is not successful it could "in turn lead to a reconstitution of Al Qaeda or a growth of ISIS" within three years, Milley said.

The Taliban claim that government positions for their administration will be announced soon and that women may be a part of the government but can not hold any “ministerial positions.”

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