Over the past four years, the Taliban have issued numerous decrees restricting the freedoms of citizens, particularly women, systematically and deliberately excluding them from society. Recently, a new wave of arrests and disappearances of girls and women has begun in several parts of Kabul, sparking widespread concern among families and women. Human rights activists, women, and protesting girls have described these Taliban actions as crimes against humanity and a stain on their reputation. In recent days, the group has detained dozens of girls and women from various areas, including Dasht-e Barchi, Shahr-e Naw, Kote Sangi, and Qala-e Fatullah, transferring them to unknown locations. Opposition fronts have warned that these crackdowns will not go unanswered.
The Taliban have intensified their arbitrary and extralegal arrests in recent days, escalating the detention of girls and women in various parts of Kabul on charges of “improper hijab.” Women and girls, expressing alarm over the situation, emphasize that the Taliban subject them to brutal torture, detention, and imprisonment.
Samira (pseudonym), a resident of the Dasht-e Barchi area, said: “There was commotion in the Resaalat alley, with noise and chaos. Everyone was calling their relatives, asking where their daughters were and urging them not to leave home if they were safe. The Taliban brought private vehicles with tinted windows, and the girls they detained were thrown into those vehicles. Women there said that two girls, despite wearing black hijabs, were detained just for not wearing masks and were put into the tinted-window vehicles. The Taliban don’t care about hijab; they just round up girls and take them away.”
Uzra (pseudonym), another resident of the Dasht-e Barchi area of Kabul, said: “These days, they warn people through loudspeakers to observe hijab. I was heading to the Barchi City Center. When I left home, near the Sayedha alley of the Pul-e Khushk area, I saw a tinted-window vehicle, a Ranger, and a Fortuner with four members of the Taliban Morality Police standing there. I got scared, went to a shop, and put on a mask. When I reached the Barchi City Center, they were there too, standing in front of the center, scrutinizing women from head to toe, as if they were selecting specific women. I saw one woman with a proper hijab being put into a vehicle. Another was taken from near Reza Burger and driven away.”
A girl, who for anonymity in the report, said: “Girls wearing subtly short trousers, slippers without socks, with visible hair, or tight-fitting hijab are taken directly to the intelligence directorate. Guilty or not, they are imprisoned for up to three months.”
Several human rights activists and women have strongly condemned the Taliban’s actions, calling on the people of Afghanistan to stand against the Taliban’s “misogynistic and oppressive” policies and prevent further violations of women’s dignity and status in the country. These activists have described the detention of girls in Kabul as an attack on liberal values and emphasized that the world’s silence on this matter is shameful.
The Afghanistan Human Rights Activists’ Union has called the recent arrests of women and girls by the Taliban a disgrace to the group and strongly condemned them. In a statement, they said the Taliban have once again displayed their “inhumane, misogynistic, and ethnocentric” nature in Kabul through these arrests.
The union’s statement read: “The abduction of dozens of young women from streets, shopping centers, public transportation, and even hospitals in various parts of Kabul by armed men is a stain on the reputation of this barbaric and medieval group.” They emphasized that the detention of girls and women is a clear violation of the religious and cultural values of the people of Afghanistan and fuels ongoing war and violence. According to these activists, the Taliban’s recent actions are not isolated incidents but part of their systematic ideology. The union warned that these arrests are a continuation of “crimes” previously witnessed from ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Reactions from Women and Girls
Sima Noori, a women’s rights activist, said videos of the arrests are deeply distressing. Quoting detained women, she said: “A young woman was screaming, ‘You took away our education, and now you want to imprison us?’” Noori criticized the United Nations for remaining silent on these Taliban crimes, noting that regional countries, instead of holding the Taliban accountable, are moving toward legitimizing the group.
Hasina Kohistani, a defense lawyer, said: “The Taliban have detained more than 100 women and girls in Kabul on charges of improper hijab. They are not criminals; prison is not the place for women who are simply trying to live and breathe. We will not stay silent and demand their unconditional release.”
Fatima Etemadi, a member of the Afghanistan Women’s Justice Movement, said: “The Taliban fear women’s gatherings ahead of planned events for August 15 and are using hijab as an excuse to intimidate and threaten them. Clothing is a personal choice, and no one has the right to interfere. The girls must be returned to their homes unconditionally. The Taliban are a terrorist group; do not recognize them.”
Julia Parsi, a former Taliban prisoner and protesting woman, said: “The Taliban have detained over 100 women and girls from the streets, hospitals, and restaurants in Kabul and transferred them to unknown locations. The fate of some remains unknown. These arrests are a major blow to women and show that the Taliban fear their voices. We are the voice of these girls, and this voice cannot be silenced.”
In a published video, a protesting girl said: “I don’t know how long we must remain silent or how much oppression we must endure without speaking out. My heart is full of pain and anger. Several girls were detained simply for alleged improper hijab, even though they were fully covered. Why this brutal and humiliating treatment? Why, whenever they want to show their power, do they target women’s bodies and clothing? Why must women always be the victims? As a girl, I don’t feel safe; I walk the streets in constant fear.”
Parisa Azada, a member of the Afghanistan Women’s Movement for Justice and Freedom, joined the “No to the Arrest of Girls” campaign with a protest video. She said: “We are witnessing the Taliban, with their medieval mindset, trying to silence, frighten, and destroy the women of Afghanistan. But our silence, fear, and pain will not last forever.” She described the arrests as “an overt attack on human dignity, collective conscience, and the country’s future.”
These concerns arise as, under the Taliban’s Law for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a woman’s voice is considered “awrah” (private), and women may only leave home for essential needs with their faces covered and voices kept low. According to this law, hearing a woman’s voice from inside a home is prohibited, and transporting women without a male guardian by drivers is banned.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
