Taliban unleash new crackdown on women with 20 dragged off street by guards and beaten in jail

At least 20 women and girls in Afghanistan have been dragged off the street and beaten in prison in the latest attack by the Taliban‘s morality police.

The women were rounded up on Saturday in the Afghan capital of Kabul before being violently forced into the back of a vehicle by the enforcers, accompanied by female personnel.

The incident comes as the Taliban expands their crackdown on fundamental freedoms and human rights, five years after the oppressive de facto regime seized control in Afghanistan.

Footage obtained by local news outlet Amu TV showed several of the women, who were wearing hijabs, being beaten as they were apprehended. One witness said a pregnant woman was among them, whose husband pleaded with the authorities to let her go.

‘They detained 20 girls and took them away,’ one witness told the US-based Afghan broadcaster. ‘Among them was a pregnant woman. Her husband was crying and saying, “my wife is unwell. Do not hurt her, do not harass her.”

‘She was two or three months pregnant. They hit her and dragged her away.’

Meanwhile, one of the victims described being ‘grabbed [by her] collar’ by the officers, who ‘tore’ it during the altercation.  The woman said: ‘When the struggle began, I resisted for five minutes. When they could not overpower me, a man came, grabbed me and took me away.’

The woman said she fought back before being slapped and made to wear a face mask. ‘Look at how they treated me. When he slapped me in the face, I pulled off the mask and hit him with it, and I started fighting,’ she said.

‘I said I would not wear a mask and that from now on, as long as I am alive, I will not wear one.’

It is understood that the women and girls were released after their families and local community representatives provided guarantees for them.

The incident adds to a string of oppressive attacks against Afghan women this year by the Taliban’s morality police. Last month, at least nine women were rounded up across two days as part of the regime’s enforcement of strict Sharia law dress codes.

The women were detained in the city of Herat, despite them all wearing hijabs, according to Amu TV. The arrests come as the group has been ramping up its psychological abuse of women in Afghanistan.

According to a Herat resident, women are becoming increasingly afraid to leave their homes, said: ‘They harass women everywhere under the pretext of enforcing morality,’ the resident said.

‘Women are being detained, intimidated and subjected to psychological abuse, yet no one is listening.’

Another resident said four women were detained outside the Marble Market on Monday despite complying with the Taliban’s dress requirements. ‘They were wearing hijab,’ the resident said. ‘They were taken simply because they were wearing long coats.’

Residents in Kabul have also reported that Taliban morality police have been increasing their street patrols.

Meanwhile, in the Panjshir province, the Taliban recently told female doctors working at a local hospital that they would not be allowed to work unless they wore a burqa.

The attack in Herat came just weeks after a protest against the Taliban’s morality police left one person dead and several more wounded. Officials opened fire on demonstrators during a protest back in June after dozens took to the streets to denounce the detention of women and girls arrested for violating the country’s dress code.

Footage obtained by Amu TV showed residents running in fear down a street in the Jibrail township, north-west of Herat City, amid the sound of multiple gunshots.

Protesters can be heard screaming as others were beaten to the ground by officials wielding long sticks. Armed men can be seen breaking up the demonstration, including fully veiled women among the protesters.

Sayed Masoud Hosseini, spokesman for Herat police, told the state-run Bakhtar News Agency that the gathering had ‘created tensions’ and disturbed public order under the pretext of opposing the Islamic hijab, which he described as a religious obligation.

The demonstration followed days of growing outrage over the detention of women and girls in Herat, for allegedly failing to comply with the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic dress requirements.

Dozens of women, including at least 21 whose detentions were independently confirmed, had been taken into custody by officials from the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Amu TV claimed.

Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has steadily expanded restrictions on women and girls – including bans on secondary and university education, limits on employment and increasingly strict regulations governing their appearance and movement in public.

Herat, long regarded as one of Afghanistan’s most socially and culturally vibrant cities, has undergone significant changes.

The human rights arm of the UN delivered a damning assessment of conditions in Afghanistan in a report released in March, warning that life for ordinary Afghans, especially women and girls, has severely worsened under the Taliban.

Presenting the report, UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk said: ‘The cascade of edicts and laws announced by the authorities since coming to power in 2021 is having a crushing impact on the Afghan people, particularly women and girls.’

Women remain excluded from all education above primary school age, following a ban from higher education since December 2022.

In November 2025, medical graduation examinations were held without the participation of women for the second consecutive year, after having been banned from medical institutes since December 2024.

Women deemed not to be complying with the chador requirement – the traditional Islamic full-body cloak – have been removed from public transport and denied access to public markets and services.

Meanwhile, a new law demands that girls wait until puberty before seeking to get out of a marriage, and also requires mediation for women seeking to escape an abusive husband.

‘The authorities have, in effect, criminalized the presence of women and girls in public life,’ Mr Turk said. ‘Discrimination affects their healthcare, their access to civic space, and their freedom of movement and expression.’

‘Afghanistan is a graveyard for human rights,’ he concluded

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Original Article: Taliban unleash new crackdown on women with 20 dragged off street by guards and beaten in jail

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