The United Nations expressed concern about the Taliban’s arrest of Afghan women and girls for their alleged failure to comply with the authorities’ dress code.
In May 2022, the Taliban government issued a decree calling for women to show only their eyes and recommending they wear a head-to-toe burqa. The Taliban, which returned to power in 2021, has cracked down on the way women dress and behave in public, notably through morality laws forbidding them to show their faces outside the home.
The UN mission in Afghanistan said it was concerned by the arrest of “numerous” women and girls in Kabul between July 16 and 19, who authorities claimed had not followed instructions on wearing the hijab, or the Islamic headscarf. “These incidents serve to further isolate women and girls, contribute to a climate of fear, and erode public trust,” the mission added, without details including the number of arrests or the ages and where they have been held. It urged the Taliban government to “ rescind policies and practices ” that restrict women and girls’ human rights and fundamental freedoms, particularly the ban on education beyond sixth grade.
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