Purple Saturdays Movement Warns of Dangerous Consequences of Taliban Decree on “Collecting Mentally Ill Patients”

Sent to Zan TV

The “Purple Saturdays” movement, in a statement, described the recent decree of the Taliban leader on the forced collection of mentally ill patients across Afghanistan as a clear violation of the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities and warned of its dangerous consequences.

In the statement published on Tuesday (September 16), it was said that such an action is contrary to Afghanistan’s international commitments, especially the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the guidelines of the World Health Organization, which emphasize that any intervention in the lives of people with mental health issues must be carried out with informed consent and a supportive and rehabilitative approach, not through coercive and security-based methods.

The movement warned that in the absence of an effective health system and considering the Taliban’s history of violence, this decree could become a tool for arbitrary arrests, torture, and even the elimination of political and social opponents under the label of “mentally ill patients.” According to the movement, such a policy only creates a new wave of fear and terror in society and further exposes the mental health of the Afghan people to collapse.

The movement reminded that one of the main causes of the spread of mental illness in Afghanistan is the Taliban’s repressive policies, gender apartheid against women, violations of citizens’ fundamental rights, poverty, and widespread unemployment.

The statement stressed: “The continuation of Taliban rule will intensify the mental health crisis and lead to an increase in cases of suicide and mental illness.” The movement called on the United Nations, the Human Rights Council, and human rights defenders to exert serious and comprehensive pressure for the abolition of the Taliban’s so-called “Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.”

Meanwhile, the Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada recently issued a decree under which all Taliban departments are obliged to identify and collect mentally ill patients in the country’s 34 provinces.

Taliban officials in Daikundi have confirmed that the process has begun and that patients are being handed over to the Red Crescent and some affiliated institutions of the group. The Taliban have described this action as being carried out “to preserve social order.”

It should be noted that the Taliban have a violent history in dealing with vulnerable people; for example, last October, a 22-year-old man with a mental disorder was shot dead by Taliban members in Ghor province when the group attempted to forcibly take him away.