Three eyewitnesses say that Taliban officials from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice detained and took away several women and girls in three separate incidents in Herat. According to one witness, a 13-year-old girl was among those detained. Despite wearing a headscarf and a mask, she was reportedly detained by Taliban forces.
One witness said that at around 11 a.m. on Sunday, near the Taliban’s Information and Culture Directorate, officials from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice detained a girl believed to be about 13 years old as she was leaving an educational course. According to the witness, the girl screamed loudly and called for help as she was being detained.
The witness added that several shopkeepers protested after witnessing the incident and shouted: “Shame on us that they take our women away and imprison them in front of us while we just stand and watch.” According to the witness, the officials beat one of the protesters with an electric baton, leaving the man’s face bloodied. The girl, who had been forced into a vehicle, was then taken away.
Another eyewitness said that later the same day, two Taliban vehicles detained a number of women and girls in the Pul-e Rangina area. According to the witness, the officials forcibly put several women and girls wearing prayer headscarves and masks into the vehicles. One of the women had two children with her, who cried as their mother was being detained.
The witness added that several men asked the Taliban officials to release the women, but the Taliban ignored their pleas and drove the women away. He said that when the vehicles reached the vicinity of the Sufiabad area, two veiled women also forcibly put a young woman wearing a mask and prayer headscarf into a vehicle.
In a third incident, an eyewitness said on Monday that two Taliban vehicles took away a girl from an alley known as Hammam-e Khwaja Amini. According to the witness, the girl was wearing a hijab, a manteau, and a face mask.
The witness added that the girl was carrying a backpack and appeared to be under 20 years old. He described the Taliban officials’ treatment of the girl as violent, saying: “It was as if they had caught a thief.”
The wave of arrests of women and girls in Herat has intensified since June 6. Reports of these arrests have prompted reactions from citizens and women’s rights activists.
Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s acting minister for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, previously said that people would be detained if, according to him, they sought to “promote immodesty, create unrest, and disseminate negative material” against the ministry.
Writer:Salima Aryaei
