Taliban Begin Detaining Women for ‘Improper Hijab’ in Kabul
The Taliban administration has announced that after Herat, monitoring of women’s dress code will intensify in Kabul as well, and the group’s morality police will detain women who, according to them, “do not observe the hijab.”
According to a voice message released by one of the local lawyers in western Kabul, starting next week, patrols by the so-called “morality police” will begin in the capital. He stated that a meeting about women’s dress code was held in the thirteenth district of Kabul, and street lawyers and mosque imams were instructed to inform residents about the start of this process.
This local lawyer also mentioned that notices regarding the acceptable dress code under the Taliban administration have been posted at bakery gates and mosques, an action indicating that surveillance over citizens’ private lives has entered a new phase.
Previously, Taliban officials in Herat warned women that those exhibiting “improper hijab” would be directly sent to prison. Reports indicate that the detention of women in Herat has been implemented since the beginning of this week.
Meanwhile, today several residents of the Jebrail area of Herat protested against what they described as arbitrary detentions of women. Local sources say this protest was violently suppressed by Taliban forces.
The intensified monitoring of women’s dress and their arrests come amid earlier condemnation by human rights organizations of broad restrictions on the fundamental rights and freedoms of women in Afghanistan. However, the Taliban administration has yet to provide a clear explanation regarding the legal basis for these detentions.
