Taliban morality police have detained at least nine women in Herat, Afghanistan, over a two-day period for alleged dress code violations. These arrests occurred despite the women wearing hijabs, highlighting an intensifying crackdown on female visibility in public spaces.
The Herat Detentions and the 'Long Coat' Pretext
In the city of Herat, the Taliban's morality police have arrested at least nine women in a recent effort to enforce strict Sharia law dress codes. According to reporting from Amu TV, a US-based Afghan broadcaster, these women were taken into custody despite the fact that they were all wearing hijabs. In one specific instance, residents reported that four women were detained outside the Marble Market on a Monday simply because they were wearing long coats, even though they had complied with basic hijab requirements.
Local residents in Herat have expressed growing terror,claiming that the morality police use the pretext of enforcing morality to harass women everywhere. This atmosphere of intimidation has led many women to become increasingly afraid to leave their homes, as the threat of detention and psychological abuse becomes a daily reality in one of Afghanistan's historically most vibrant cities.
One Death and the June Crackdown in Jibrail
The recent arrests in Herat follow a violent confrontation in June, where protests against the morality police resulted in one death and several injuries. According to Amu TV, officials opened fire on demonstrators in the Jibrail townshhip, located northwest of Herat City, after dozens of people took to the streets to denounce the detention of women and girls.
Footage from the scene showed protesters being beaten with long sticks by officials, while armed men worked to break up the crowd. Sayed Masoud Hosseini, a spokesperson for the Herat police, told the state-run Bakhtar News Agency that the demonstration had "created tensions" and disturbed public order under the guise of opposing the Islamic hijab, which Hosseini characterized as a religious obligation.
Volker Türk's Warning on the 'Crushing Impact' Since 2021
The current volatility in Herat is part of a systemic erasure of women's rights since the Taliban retunred to power in August 2021. uN Human Rights chief Volker Türk described the situation as a "cascade of edicts and laws" that has had a "crushing impact" on the Afghan people, particularly women and girls, in a report released in March.
The restrictions have expanded far beyond dress codes to include total bans on secondary and university education. as reported in the source, women have been excluded from higher education since December 2022, and medical graduaton examinations have been held without female participation for two consecutive years. Furthermore, the Taliban has implemented laws requiring mediation for women seeking to escape abusive husbands and mandating that girls reach puberty before seeking to exit a marriage.
The Burqa Mandate for Panjshir's Female Doctors
While the Herat arrests target women in the streets, the crackdown has reached professional sectors in other regions. In Panjshir province, the Taliban recently informed female doctors at a local hospital that they would be barred from working unless they wore a full burqa, moving the requirement beyond the standard hijab .
This shift raises critical questions about the actual standards of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. if women wearing hijabs are being arrested in Herat and doctors are being forced into burqas in Panjshir, it remains unclear what specific attire is currently deemed "compliant." Furthermore, the source does not provide a response from the central Taliban leadership regarding whether these arrests in Herat were sanctioned by the national government or were the result of local commander zeal.
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