The Taliban have intensified pressure on women in Herat to enforce the group’s mandatory hijab. Women who do not wear the burqa have been barred from entering Taliban-controlled government institutions, including hospitals, and those who visit to take care of their needs are not being allowed inside. At the same time, female teachers who teach girls below the sixth grade have been instructed that if they do not wear the burqa, they will be marked absent, and no one has the right to defy this Taliban order. The Taliban have even forced female students in religious schools under their control, who, according to the group, already observe full hijab and receive religious instruction, to wear the burqa. In response to these restrictions, several women in Herat have protested, burning the burqa as a symbol of coercion and a cage, declaring that they will never submit to humiliation and silence.
After imposing widespread bans, the Taliban have forced women and girls in Herat to wear the burqa and chador. In recent days, women without a chadari have not been allowed to enter Taliban-controlled government institutions, including hospitals, and in religious schools, they have been compelled to observe the full attire demanded by the group. Women and girls say they cannot live in a “cage” and emphasize that they already observe the complete hijab required by the Taliban and cannot endure an even worse situation.
Meanwhile, sources say that in recent days, women and girls who go to hospitals are denied entry because they do not have a burqa. According to the sources, most of these women are sick, and despite their severe physical condition, they are forced to wait behind the doors.
One source says, “I went to several offices to process some documents. At the provincial hospital, sick women and children were left behind the door, and the situation was extremely distressing. No one was allowed to enter. One visitor who had come from a remote district was holding her sick child in her arms and did not know what to do. She asked worriedly: How much does a burqa cost now, and where can we get one?”
Sources also stress that the principals of girls’ schools below the sixth grade and girls’ religious schools have been instructed to inform teachers that no one is allowed to enter the school without wearing a burqa, and if they defy this order, they will be removed from their position.
At the same time, a teacher at one of the private schools in Herat city says that they have received an official letter requiring them to wear the chadari. According to her, in the Passport Directorate under Taliban control, women who do not have a burqa will not be issued a passport.
Some female teachers in Herat have said that yesterday they resisted the Taliban order and refused to wear the burqa. According to them, school principals have also supported this decision by the teachers. However, at the “Ghiasia” religious school, women and girls without a burqa were not allowed to enter.
Sources say that on Thursday of last week and Saturday of this week, a group of women and girls protested inside “Ghiasia” and closed the school gate. According to them, around 200 to 300 students who were wearing prayer shawls waited behind the door, but they were not allowed inside, and then, as a result of the gathering of the girls, the school’s lane was blocked, and they chanted “Death to the Taliban.”
One source adds: “Today I witnessed that one of the principals received a phone call and was told: Tomorrow, mark any teacher who comes without a burqa as absent. Her face went pale. I will not wear the chadari-burqa, and I will not go to school. A month later, I will be dismissed, but then what should I do? How will I pay my living expenses? Show me a path—me and other women like me—and I will follow it. Half an hour ago, our school contacted us and said: Do not encourage teachers not to wear the chadari. You see, they know exactly whom to call and what to say. Of course, starting tomorrow, in our school as well, the chadari has been declared the official attire.”
Reaction of the Protesting Women and Girls
Following the Taliban’s intensified pressure requiring the wearing of the burqa, one woman in Herat, in reaction to this Taliban order, set a burqa on fire and said: “I am a woman, not a shadow. Do not silence my voice. Breathing is our right. Blue is not the color of coercion. We are still here, waiting for the sun behind this cloth. Inside this blue is a woman who still dreams. Take my chadar to the wind and give me back my voice. I am a woman. I have the right to breathe, the right to see, and not cover my gaze.”
Members of the Afghanistan Women’s Solidarity and Unity Movement in Herat also burned the burqa demanded by the Taliban in a symbolic act and danced in protest against the mandatory wearing of the burqa. The movement announced in a statement: “Women of Afghanistan will never surrender to coercion and humiliation.”
Hoda Khamoosh, one of the protesting women, in reaction to the Taliban’s new order in Herat, says that the Taliban fear the voices and thoughts of women and have acted harshly against women over the past four years.
Fariha Jaberi, a member of the Afghanistan Women’s Justice Movement, reacting to the imposition of the burqa in Herat, says: “Hijab, if chosen from the heart, is dignity; but if imposed out of fear and coercion, it is a chain. A chain on the hands and feet of women who only want to be human.” She adds that the Taliban want a society with one voice and one gender, but “women will not be silenced.”
Bahar Khamoosh, one of the protesting women, reacting to the Taliban order requiring the burqa in Herat, has said that imposing mandatory hijab is not only about covering the face, but about silencing half of society. She added that with this decree, the Taliban are not defending faith, but rather hiding behind their own fear. They hide beneath the burqa so that their real face is not seen, and they want to suppress the voices of women.
The Taliban, in their Law for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, have defined the “Sharia hijab” as they interpret it. According to Clause 10 of Article 3 of this law, “Sharia hijab refers to clothing that covers the entire body and face of a woman from non-mahram men and is not thin, short, or tight.”
Article 13 of the Taliban’s Law for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice makes covering all parts of a woman’s body mandatory. In this article, hearing women’s voices through loudspeakers, chants, and recitations is described as “awrah.” The article states: “Covering the entire body of a woman is obligatory. Hiding a woman’s face due to fear of temptation is necessary. Women’s voices (singing loudly, chants, and recitations) in general are awrah. Women’s clothing must not be thin, short, or tight. Muslim women are obligated to hide their bodies and faces from non-mahram men.”
In Clause 6 of Article 13, covering the face and body of a woman is described as “obligatory.” The clause states: “Covering [the bodies] of Muslim and righteous women from non-believing and immoral women due to fear of temptation is obligatory.”
Meanwhile, Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights, in a recent report titled “Access to Justice and Support for Women and Girls and the Impact of Multiple and Intersecting Forms of Discrimination,” has stated that since 2021, the Taliban have systematically deprived women and girls of fundamental rights such as education, work, freedom of movement, and judicial protection, and have dismantled previous legal and support institutions. According to this report, under Taliban control, the judicial and legal system of Afghanistan has become a tool for repression, gender discrimination, and violence against women, girls, and sexual minorities, and women face extensive economic, social, cultural, and linguistic barriers.
Additionally, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban Supreme Leader, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the head of the regime’s Supreme Court, on charges of “committing crimes against humanity.”
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
