Local sources in the western Herat province have reported that the Taliban have been monitoring women’s clothing choices and physically assaulting those who do not adhere to the group’s prescribed dress code.
According to a source, the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue agents physically assaulted several women on Saturday for wearing manteau, which the group considers to be non-Islamic clothing.
Taxi drivers in the provincial capital of Herat have confirmed that they were ordered by the Taliban Vice and Virtue Department not to pick up women who did not comply with the group’s dress requirements. Disobeying this order would result in a fine of 14,000 Afghanis ($US 160) and three nights of imprisonment, as warned by the Taliban.
According to KabulNow local reporters, the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue agents have given verbal instructions to the city’s taxi driver unions, advising them not to pick up women wearing manteau.
The Taliban has instructed women in the city to observe Islamic hijab and wear burqas that cover their faces.
Since returning to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban has enforced more than 50 restrictions on women and girls. They are required to wear Burqa while going out and are forbidden from attending school and university, working, traveling without a mahram (male guardian), and going to parks and restaurants.
The Taliban’s restrictions have been met with widespread condemnation from within Afghanistan, human rights organizations, the United Nations, and countries around the world. However, the group has shown no signs of easing these restrictions.
