Taliban Intensifies Crackdown on Women in Kabul with Detentions and Family Threats

Taliban authorities have escalated enforcement of their dress-code edicts in Kabul, detaining dozens of women and girls in recent days and warning families against disclosing details of the arrests.

Officials from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have detained women on suspicion of “bad hijab” violations during street patrols and in markets, Amu TV reported. Detainees are often released only after financial payments or signed guarantees, accompanied by verbal threats that any public mention of the arrests will bring “severe consequences.”

Families report that muhasibs—the Taliban’s morality enforcers—now conduct intrusive inspections, questioning not only visible attire but also garments worn beneath the hijab. “They interrogate even those who comply with their dress code,” said a Kabul resident whose sister was detained last week. “We fear every journey outside.”

In an apparent show of force, vice patrols have been observed operating with rifles and armored vehicles. Observers link the intensified aggression to a recent armed attack on a Taliban checkpoint in Kunduz province, claimed by the anti-Taliban National Resistance Front.

Female professionals and journalists describe growing restrictions on mobility and speech. Several said they were warned against appearing in public without a mahram, or male guardian, and some were censored during press events. At a recent live briefing led by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, two female reporters were reportedly muted mid-question.

These measures follow the Taliban’s 2023 Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which codifies gendered restrictions on clothing, movement, employment, and women’s public voices, labeling them as awrah. Human rights organizations and UN observers warn the crackdown may amount to crimes against humanity.

International criticism has mounted, with the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders over gender-based persecution. Yet diplomatic engagement by countries including Russia continues, raising concerns about legitimizing the regime’s repressive policies.

“For Afghan women, life has become suffocation,” said one Kabul resident. “We cannot even breathe freely.”