Taliban Denies Arrest of Doctor Filming Women’s Protest in Herat

The Taliban has denied reports of the arrest of Dr. Shabnam Fazli in Herat, stating that its forces merely issued her a ‘warning.’

Qodous Khatibi, Dr. Fazli’s husband, reported on Facebook on Monday, November 9, that his wife had been detained by Taliban forces. According to him, the incident occurred while she was filming a women’s protest outside Herat Central Hospital.

Earlier, a group of women had gathered to protest the ban on women entering Herat Central Hospital without wearing a burqa. The demonstration was part of a broader wave of protests against the Taliban’s increasing restrictions on women.

Although a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice emphasized that the group’s intervention was limited to a warning, past incidents of a similar nature have raised concerns about the suppression of free speech and the intimidation of healthcare workers, particularly women, under the Taliban administration.