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UN concerned by Taliban’s arrest of Afghan women and girls for dress code violations
A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 23, 2023

THE United Nations today expressed concern over the Taliban’s arrest of Afghan women and girls for allegedly failing to comply with authorities’ dress code.

In May 2022, the Taliban government issued a decree requiring women to cover their entire bodies, showing only their eyes, and recommending the wearing of a head-to-toe burqa. 

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has intensified its restrictions on women’s appearance and behaviour in public, enforcing “morality” laws that forbid women from showing their faces outside the home.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said it was alarmed by the arrest of “numerous” women and girls in Kabul between July 16 and 19, reportedly for not adhering to rules on wearing the hijab, or Islamic headscarf.

“These incidents serve to further isolate women and girls, contribute to a climate of fear, and erode public trust,” the mission said. 

It did not provide details on the number of arrests, the ages of those detained, and where they have been held.

The UN urged the Taliban authorities to “rescind policies and practices” that restrict the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls, particularly the ongoing ban on education beyond 11 to 12 years old.

The Taliban did not immediately comment.

In January 2024, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said it had arrested women in the Afghan capital for wearing “bad hijab.”

Ministry spokesman Abdul Ghafar Farooq did not clarify how many women were detained or what the term “bad hijab” entailed. 

At the time, the UN mission said it was investigating reports of ill-treatment and extortion in exchange for the women’s release.

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