A violent crackdown on a protest in western Afghanistan against the arrests of women for allegedly violating dress code regulations has left at least one person dead, the United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan said Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses said they saw Taliban police open fire during a protest on Tuesday by about 100 to 150 people against the arrests of women over the weekend in the western city of Herat.
The U.N. mission said Wednesday it had “confirmed
that at least one person, a boy, was killed by gunfire, while several others suffered injuries including from being beaten with sticks.” It said it was also verifying reports of a second fatality.
Protests are rare in Afghanistan, which has been run by the Taliban since 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led forces. The government has since imposed rules governed by a strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah. Dissent is not tolerated, and protests against government decisions are illegal.
The regulations include draconian restrictions on women and girls, including bans on education beyond primary school and what women can wear.
The rules stipulate that women can only go out in public when wearing full hijab — which includes a headscarf and long robe covering the entire body — as well as a face covering that leaves only the eyes visible. The regulations are policed by the feared Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
The U.N. mission, known by its acronym UNAMA, said that at last 30 women were arrested in Herat on Saturday and Sunday. “Dozens more women reportedly received verbal warnings. While the women were released on 8 June, the impact of such arbitrary arrests and detentions on women and their families is profound,” it said in a statement.
UNAMA called on authorities to rescind policies that restrict the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, and stressed that law enforcement “must comply with international legal standards.”
“Individuals have the right to express dissent peacefully without fear of violence, intimidation or reprisals,” it said.
Herat police command spokesperson Sayed Masoud Hosseini said in a statement Wednesday that the police “takes a serious, Shariah, and principled approach to any action that disrupts public security.”
He said “a number of rioters” had gathered on Tuesday “under the pretext of protesting issues related to the observance of the hijab and opposition to the Islamic hijab, and acted to disrupt public order.” He said security forces' presence “brought the situation under control in the shortest possible time.”
“The Herat Provincial Security Command once again emphasizes that individual and social freedoms must be implemented within the framework of Shariah law and social values, and any behavior or action that disrupts public security, creates tension, and disrupts public order is unacceptable.”
On Monday, Afghanistan’s vice and virtue ministry dismissed the reports of arrests and detentions of women.
“The issues being spread about women being arrested in Herat are all rumors,” it said in a statement, adding that wearing the “hijab is a divine command, a law that we are obliged to implement.”
Georgette Gagnon, the U.N.’s Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and officer in charge of UNAMA, said that the detention of women in Afghanistan “carries enormous stigma, which can put women at risk of further violence and isolation in their families and communities even after they are released.”
She said authorities were “obliged under international law to uphold the rights of all Afghans to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, liberty and security of person, and freedom from arbitrary detention.”
