Human Rights Activists Union Condemns Arrest of Women in Herat Over Their Clothing
In response to reports of women being arrested in Herat over their clothing, the Human Rights Activists Union stated that the measures being carried out by the Taliban constitute a violation of human dignity, individual freedoms, and women's basic rights.
News Center -- The Taliban continues to impose growing restrictions on women's freedom in Afghanistan, including interference in their choice of clothing and tighter surveillance in public spaces,sparking widespread rights-based criticism and warnings over the public spaces,sparking widespread righs-based criticism and warnings over the worsening erosion of women's basix freedoms in the country.
The Huamn Rights Activists Union announced in a statement yesterday, Thursday,July 30, that women in Herat are being subjected to arrest,threats, and humiliation over how they dress and appear in public spaces, noting that pulling women out of cars in front of others, forcibly transporting them to unknown locations, and creating an atmosphere of fear in the city does not amount to law enforcement or the maintenance or the maintenance of public order,but rather constitutes a violation of women's dignity and basic rights.
The statement affirmed that arresting women over their hijab,alongside denying them education, employment,social participation, and freedom of movement, is part of a broder process of pushing women out of public life,considering that the Taliban's treatment of women recalls various periods of women's oppression throughout Afghan history,describing it as a continuation of "historical patterns of humiliation,abduction,and the marginalizationof women."
In its statement, the union called on the United Nations, special rapporteurs, human rights institutions, governments committed to democratic values, and the international community not to remain silent in the face of what it calls "the oppression of women," and to take action to prevent the continuation of this trend.
This response comes amid reports in recent days of women and girls being arrested in Herat for not wearing the hijab mandated by the Taliban. Local sources in Herat also told the Afghan Women's News Agency that female forces under the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice arrested a number of women in various parts of the city and transported them to an unknown location. The Taliban has not officially commented on these reports so far.