The Taliban vice and virtue police have shut down and sealed all women-only coffee shops in Herat city on Tuesday, according to local sources.
One of the café owners said, “My father gave me 1.5 million Afghanis ($22,000) from his lifetime hard work to invest in this cafe, and now it’s all gone to waste.”
“When we are not allowed to study or work, how are we supposed to survive in the future? I feel like everything has collapsed around me. I’m trying to survive, but there is no way out,” she said.
“Since yesterday, I haven’t had a single minute of rest; I’ve approached every organization, and all doors are closed to us. The stress has become so overwhelming that I have fallen ill and am going through very difficult times.”
The Women’s Historical Transformation Movement’s head Roqia Saiee said the Taliban’s systematic polices are aimed at completely erasing women from society.
“These women had established the cafés with their personal investments, but by closing these places, the Taliban are putting women in extremely difficult emotional and psychological conditions,” she said.
She warned that these restrictions not only violate the basic human rights of women but also pave the way for an even darker future for future generations.
Last week the Taliban had verbally instructed the cafés to stop operations.
