By: Rukhshana Media
Women in Al-Mahedi of Jabreil area, Herat city, are being physically threatened with whipping and detainment by the local morality police for allegedly not abiding by the Taliban’s preferences for the hijab, local sources said.
The Taliban’s Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice spoke on Thursday with the local elders at a meeting in Al-Mahedi’s Sayed ul-Shohda Mosque where the group warned that they will harshly punish anyone not observing the hijab, according to two local sources.
According to the morality police, observance of the hijab means an all-encompassing burqa or a black hijab that covers the face except the eyes.
A source familiar with the meeting told Rukhshana Media that the Ministry of Virtue and Vice have raised this complaint with the elders twice before, accusing people in Al-Mahedi, who are mainly Hazaras, of not wearing the hijab correctly.
The morality police warned the elders that if they see a woman without a “proper” hijab, they will punish both the woman and the elders, the source said.
Another source, who also confirmed the meeting, said that the Taliban fighters have warned Al-Mahedi residents that not observing the hijab as prescribed is the equivalent of opposing the government, and to observe it is to cooperate.
“The women and girls of Jabriel don’t observe hijab compared to other neighborhoods in Herat city. If we see it again, we will detain them, whip them or take them into the city,” the head of the morality police said at the meeting, according to the source.
The Ministry of Virtue and Vice is known for its brutal and at times arbitrary approach to justice and order. On Wednesday, it hanged two alleged armed robbers in Farhang Square of Al-Mahdi. A day earlier, the bodies of two other thieves were displayed in the center of Herat city.
