News Center – The Taliban is escalating its widespread human rights abuses through arrest campaigns in markets and public places across Afghanistan, targeting women for allegedly failing to adhere to the imposed dress code.

 

As restrictions on women in Afghanistan intensify, local sources in Herat reported the arrest of approximately ten women and girls by the Taliban's morality police. According to these sources, the detained women were taken into custody after being interrogated, insulted, and publicly humiliated simply for what the Taliban calls "failure to observe the Islamic veil," a move that has reignited concerns about the escalating oppression of women.

Three local sources told the Afghan Women's News Agency that Taliban female forces initially stopped and interrogated women for not wearing prayer shawls and face masks. The interrogations led to their arrest, and they were taken to an unknown location.

 

An eyewitness to the incident said that the Taliban forces insulted and humiliated the women in public before taking them away. According to the source, white vehicles belonging to the "Nizam al-Barr wa-mana' al-Shar" (Foreign Order and Prevention of Evil) forces were patrolling the market. After entering the area, they arrested a number of women and girls present in the market.

 

The source confirmed that the atmosphere in the market was tense and fearful after the incident, and that many women left the area to avoid arrest.

 

Taliban officials have not issued any official statement regarding these arrests or the fate of the detained women. In many similar cases, the Taliban have offered no explanation for the women's whereabouts, condition, or expected release.

 

In recent weeks, numerous reports have emerged from various Afghan provinces, including Herat, Kabul, and Balkh, of an increase in the arrest of women for what the Taliban calls "failure to adhere to the Islamic dress code."

 

According to reports from local sources, forces from the Taliban's Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice patrol markets, streets, and other public places, arresting and transferring women who, in their view, do not adhere to the group's dress code to detention centers or prisons.

 

The continuation of this practice has been met with widespread criticism from human rights institutions, international organizations, and women's rights activists, who have asserted that the arbitrary detention of women based on their clothing constitutes a flagrant violation of fundamental rights, individual freedoms, and human dignity.

 

Despite these criticisms, the Taliban have not only refrained from their restrictive policies against women over the past five years, but have also expanded the scope of social restrictions by intensifying surveillance patrols and increasing arrests; a trend that has heightened concerns about the status of women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan.