In recent days, the Taliban have extensively detained and imprisoned women whom they claim to be “improperly veiled.” Hundreds of women and girls have been subjected to torture, beatings, and humiliation on charges of “improper veiling,” spending varying periods ranging from one to several days in Taliban security zones. Sources and women’s rights activists report that detainees are released upon payment and assurance of support for the Taliban regime. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of the Taliban has confirmed the detention of some women in Kabul for “improper veiling.” The exact number of detained women and girls has not been specified, but the trend of arrests and interrogations continues. Women and girls in Kabul state that the Taliban have made life difficult for them. This comes amid the suicide of a protesting woman in Kunduz province due to the restrictions imposed by the Taliban. The Taliban’s actions have elicited widespread reactions.
Women and girls in Kabul assert that the Taliban, under the pretext of improper veiling, have systematically detained all females engaged in social activities. Through these actions, they aim to completely hinder the presence of women outside their homes and coerce their families into vocal support for the group.
In the past week, the Taliban have unprecedentedly engaged in public and street-level arrests of women. Despite internal and external pressures, the group defends these detentions of what they label as “improperly veiled” women, framing it as a prevention of moral offenses.
This occurs while women and girls claim that the Taliban, through their detentions, seek to erase women from society, making it impossible for any woman to step outside her home. According to them, alongside these prohibitions, the Taliban resort to intimidation and extortion of women and their families.
Batool Heydari, a university professor, speaking to the Hasht-e Subh Daily, states that the Taliban are pursuing three objectives through the detention and imprisonment of women and girls. According to her, these goals include “extorting families in exchange for freedom, obtaining commitments from girls to communicate with the media and declare their satisfaction with the Taliban regime, and perpetuating fear and terror among Afghan women.” The Taliban aim to achieve these objectives through the imposed restrictions.
Furthermore, Nilofar Ayoubi, a women’s rights activist, citing her sources in Kabul, reports that the Taliban have transferred detained women and girls to undisclosed locations. According to her, the Taliban have detained women from various areas of Kabul, including Dasht-e Barchi, while the detained women and girls were wearing “appropriate and conventional hijab” at the time of their arrest, as claimed by the Taliban.
Ms. Ayoubi adds that women and girls who resisted Taliban militants have also experienced physical violence from this group. She emphasizes that the Taliban’s treatment of women goes beyond educational deprivation, and the group detains and tortures women under baseless pretexts.
This women’s rights activist explicitly states: “The ongoing suppression requires urgent global attention and action to support the rights and well-being of Afghan women and girls. The international community must continue to condemn these human rights violations and exert pressure on the Taliban to respect the rights and dignity of women.”
This comes as one of the protesting girls in Kunduz province has taken her own life due to the pressures from the Taliban and the challenging living conditions under the rule of this group. She was 21 years old, and her family preferred to keep her name and details private from the media. However, the protesting girls have referred to her as Bibigul, and she was active under the pseudonym Zahra Mohammadi.
Women’s protest movements, in response to the suicide of this protesting woman, have issued a statement asserting that she took her own life after being released from Taliban custody and facing dire conditions for girls and women. The statement regarding Bibigul Mohammadi reads, “For two years, she had been the voice of Afghan women, loudly protesting for changes in the conditions for her fellow countrywomen. After being released from Taliban captivity and enduring continued pressures from the Taliban on her family and herself, she could no longer bear this level of pressure alone. Faced with the appalling conditions for Afghan girls that have remained unchanged, she resorted to suicide so that her eyes would no longer witness the suffocation and hardships imposed on the women of her country.”
Simultaneously, Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), has labeled the Taliban’s actions as hostility towards women. He stated, “Afghanistan has gone through bitter and challenging developments, but never have the women of our country faced such levels of disrespect and crime. Kidnapping, torture, harassment, and indignity against the brave women of Afghanistan, while being the most heinous form of crimes against humanity, impose heavy historical responsibilities on the Taliban forever.”
The leader of the National Resistance Front added, “We believe that the Taliban are neither the present nor the future of Afghanistan, devoted to freedom, justice, stability, and prosperity in our country. By resorting to abduction and disrespecting women, this group is signing its premature demise and bolstering the motivation for resistance in the brave forces and fighters for the dignity and freedom of Afghanistan more than ever.”
The Taliban’s actions have also stirred reactions from the United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteur. He stated that restrictions against women have intensified.
Richard Bennett, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, urged the immediate and unconditional release of women detained by the Taliban for “improper veiling.”
Mr. Bennett, on his X (formerly Twitter) account, wrote that the recent arrests of women in Kabul, confirmed by the Taliban, indicate further restrictions on women’s freedom of expression and the weakening of their other rights.
Some girls and women, released after Taliban interrogations, state that the Taliban treated them harshly and severely beat and tortured those who refused to go to their security zones.
Several sources, unwilling to disclose their names, have confirmed being whipped by Taliban fighters and subjected to insults and humiliation by the group. The Taliban, however, consider these actions as “legitimate” and emphasize the continuation of the detention and torture of women. The Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of this group, confirming the detention of girls and women in Kabul, stated that this action was taken to prevent “moral offenses.”
It is noteworthy that the Taliban regime has been widely accused by human rights organizations of violating women’s rights in less than two and a half years of its inception. These organizations have described the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls as crimes against humanity, gender apartheid, and systematic eradication.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of the Taliban, which some refer to as an “order to shroud” for women and girls, continues its imposition of prohibitions and restrictions against women and girls in Afghanistan. Previously, the Moral Police of this ministry had destroyed mannequins dressed in clothing they deemed as promoting “improper veiling.”