KABUL – Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, has voiced grave concern over a new wave of arrests targeting women and girls by the Taliban in Kabul.
In a post on X on Monday, Bennett said the detentions resemble those earlier in 2024 but have reportedly been “more violent” this time.
“These arrests reflect persistent enforcement of the Taliban’s systematic gender persecution, causing great fear among Afghans,” he wrote, urging support for those released.
Over the past week, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has intensified its crackdown, detaining young women and girls in various parts of Kabul for alleged “improper hijab.”
Local sources told KabulNow that Taliban morality police have taken dozens of girls from several neighborhoods in western Kabul and from Shahr-e-Naw in the city center.
Earlier this year, the group carried out similar raids in the Hazara-majority Dasht-e-Barchi area and the Tajik-populated Khair Khana neighborhood.
The latest arrests have sparked widespread condemnation from political figures, rights groups, and activists, who denounce the Taliban’s arbitrary detention of women and escalating gender-based restrictions.
