Women arrested last Wednesday, July 16, by Taliban morality police in Kabul’s Shahr-e-Naw neighborhood have been transferred to Taliban-run security outposts and their Ministry of Interior, according to individuals familiar with the matter.
The women were initially detained for allegedly failing to wear what the Taliban defines as “proper hijab,” despite some reportedly observing conservative Islamic dress at the time of arrest. Video footage obtained by Amu last week showed Taliban enforcers detaining women from clinics, restaurants and shopping centers without warning or explanation.
Now, sources say, many of those detained have been relocated from local police precincts to central security facilities, including sites operated by the Ministry of Interior. Some women have been released after their families signed written pledges. Others, however, remain in custody.
Family members of several detainees say Taliban officials demanded payments in exchange for the release of their daughters or sisters. Some of the women who resisted arrest were allegedly beaten during questioning.
“This was not just a warning,” said a relative of one detainee, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It was a show of power. Some of them were taken in front of their children.”
Sources told Amu that the operation was carried out jointly by officers from the 10th Police District and agents of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
While Taliban officials continue to deny that arrests have taken place, their statements have conflicted with both eyewitness accounts and video documentation. In a phone call last week, a spokesperson for the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue claimed no one had been detained, and described recent actions as part of a nationwide “awareness campaign” on hijab compliance.
Taliban have repeatedly expanded restrictions on women’s public presence since returning to power in August 2021. They have has issued edicts limiting women’s access to education, work and travel, and increased patrols aimed at enforcing its interpretation of Islamic modesty.
Rights groups say the latest arrests — and now, the transfer of detainees to higher security institutions — mark a troubling escalation.
“Women are being punished not for violating laws, but for existing in public space,” said one Afghan civil society activist. “And now, they’re being disappeared into the Taliban’s security apparatus.”
