Dozens of young women were detained in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday and taken into custody in an unknown location in an apparent crackdown over stringent new dress laws introduced by the Taliban.
Saturday’s detentions came after around 100 women were arrested in similar circumstances on Wednesday and only released after spending a night in a police cell and promising to abide by the “Islamic hijab” regulations.
Witnesses told Rukhshana Media they saw members of the Taliban’s feared morality police force several young women into a vehicle in the Tank-e-Til area of western Kabul on Saturday using the threat of weapons and drive them away. There were no female officers present.
Another source said the presence of the morality police, who operate under the Taliban’s Ministry for the propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, had increased in recent days in the area of western Kabul where the arrests took place. Witnesses said they were still out in force on Sunday morning in the area, which has a large population of the Hazara ethnic and has been the target of previous crackdowns.
According to the same source, the Taliban have instructed the administrators of some schools not to allow girls into classrooms without a hijab and face covering.
Less than a year after they returned to power in 2021, the Taliban decreed that women must wear either a burqa, which covers everything including the face with a mesh screen for the eyes, or a hijab with a face covering.
Previous crackdowns have been criticised by the United Nations as enforcing an “institutionalised system of discrimination” that diminishes women and girls in Afghan society.
It’s unclear what the alleged violations are. Eyewitnesses in one area said they saw police stop four vehicles and detain young female passengers who looked to be in their teens, all of whom were wearing the hijab.
A WhatsApp message sent to community leaders in the district of western Kabul where the arrests took place said the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue ministry had issued a directive to all Kabul police districts alleging that women were not observing the hijab rules “as required” and would be dealt with “in accordance with Sharia law”.
Wednesday’s arrests took place in Shahr-e-Naw, a commercial district that houses offices and shopping centres. Sources said women were detained on charges of being improperly dressed and some only released after spending a night in custody and providing a written promise to abide by the rules.
One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the women were detained from various parts of the city, including from inside hospitals, and taken to detention centers run by the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue department in Kabul.
Activists denounced the arrests as videos circulating on social media showed women surrounded by Taliban forces. One woman could be heard loudly telling the Taliban: “You have deprived us of life, education, and going to school; what more do you want? Fear God!”
Saif-ul-Islam Khaibar, spokesperson for the Taliban’s vice and virtue ministry, denied the reports of women being arrested in Kabul.
