The Taliban Have Criminalised Women Eating in Public; Dozens of Women Arrested in Herat

Photo by: Abdul Karim Azim/alive-in

In an unprecedented and contentious move, officers from the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice detained dozens of women and girls on Saturday evening (November 15) after they had gone with their families to the restaurants in Herat’s Taraqi Park to have a meal.

Witnesses say that even women who were observing the Taliban’s mandatory dress requirements were not allowed to sit and eat, and officers detained them on the grounds of “the presence of women in a restaurant”. The incident has sparked a wave of anger, fear and confusion among families.

Families present at the scene say the incident was so sudden and humiliating that children began crying out of fear, and no one understood what “crime” the women were supposed to have committed.

Some women’s rights activists describe the Taliban’s behaviour as a new form of restriction and control over women, calling it “insulting” and “a violation of human rights”. According to them, the Taliban cannot exercise control over the women in their own households, yet they imprison other women in a cage of restrictions.

Mahsa Muradi, a women’s rights activist, told Zan News that the Taliban treat the women of society as if they were the ignored women and girls of their own families, while the people of Herat are educated, aware and urban, and will not accept being treated in the same way. She described this action as a new attempt to silence urban women and impose fear on society.

Wajiha, another women’s rights activist, said the Taliban invent a new form of control over women’s lives every day and violate their most basic rights. She stressed that women have the right to go out with their families or even alone to eat, and that depriving women of leaving their homes and eating in public is an obvious attempt to destroy their individual freedoms.

According to residents, Herat, once one of the most vibrant and family-oriented cities in the country, has now become a place where women are afraid even to sit in a restaurant.

The mass arrests on Saturday evening have raised new questions among the public:

if women eating food is considered a crime today, what will be forbidden tomorrow? Walking? Speaking? Or breathing?