Amnesty International: Taliban Order in Herat Endangers the Lives of Women

image: @MSF_Afghanistan/X

Amnesty International Italy has warned that the Taliban’s new restriction in Herat, which bans women without a burqa from entering hospitals, has put the lives of thousands of women and girls at risk.

The organisation wrote on its X page on Thursday, 13 November: “The Taliban’s war on women and girls continues. Women have been removed from all areas of public life and deprived of their rights and human dignity.”

Amnesty International stressed that the new ban further restricts women’s and girls’ access to medical services, including essential healthcare, and stated that the international community must not remain silent in the face of such conditions.

The organisation added: “We always stand with the women of Afghanistan.”

This reaction comes after the Taliban in recent days ordered that women in Herat may only enter government offices, schools and hospitals if they are wearing a burqa. Reports indicate that female doctors, nurses and patients without a burqa have been prevented from entering the Herat regional hospital.

Several human rights and humanitarian organisations had previously warned that this Taliban decision disrupts women’s access to healthcare and will worsen the country’s health crisis.

In early November, the Taliban made the burqa mandatory in Herat. Women without a burqa are neither allowed to use taxis nor to enter schools and hospitals. The decision has prompted widespread criticism from women’s rights activists, and in Kabul and Herat women burned the burqa in symbolic protest.