HRAU: Arresting Women in Herat Is Neither Law Enforcement nor the Maintenance of Public Order
The Human Rights Activists Union, responding to the Taliban’s continued arrests of women in Herat, says no society can achieve stability, justice or legitimacy by imprisoning women, silencing girls and imposing fear on families.
The organisation said on Thursday (30 July), that arresting women because of their clothing was a clear violation of their individual freedom, human dignity and fundamental rights.
In a statement, the organisation said that pulling women out of vehicles in public, forcibly transferring them to unknown locations and creating an atmosphere of fear across the city constituted neither law enforcement nor the maintenance of public order.
The Human Rights Activists Union says what is happening in Herat is not merely a clothing restriction, but part of an organised system aimed at controlling, humiliating and excluding women from social life.
According to the organisation, the arrest of women because of their clothing, alongside denying them education, employment, social participation and freedom of movement, shows that the Taliban have turned women into second-class citizens.
The Human Rights Activists Union also described the Taliban’s treatment of women as a continuation of historical patterns of humiliation, abduction, deprivation of autonomy and instrumental treatment of women.
The organisation stressed that it considers the Taliban a “terrorist, illegal group lacking legal legitimacy” and described all arbitrary arrests, repression and restrictions imposed on women as contrary to human rights principles, international law and human dignity.
The Human Rights Activists Union called on the United Nations, special rapporteurs, human rights organisations, governments committed to democratic values and the international community not to remain silent over the continued arrest and repression of women.
The organisation warned that silence in the face of the repression of women paves the way for the expansion of injustice and the recurrence of humanitarian tragedies.
This comes after Taliban vice and virtue officers arrested at least five women wearing manteaus in different parts of Herat city on Wednesday evening (29 July).
According to witnesses, the Taliban pulled one of the women out of her husband’s vehicle and forcibly took her away.
The arrest of women because of their clothing had previously sparked protests in Herat. The Taliban suppressed protests by residents of Jibril with gunfire, killing at least two teenagers and injuring several others.
