Women’s rights groups and activists have strongly condemned the Taliban’s recent wave of arrests targeting women in Kabul, describing it as a systematic effort to erase women from public life.
In a statement on Monday, the Voice of Afghan Women Movement led by Hadiya Sahabzada said the Taliban’s physical handling of women during arrests constitutes “a violation of international law, human rights principles, and a deep insult to women’s human dignity.”
“No regime, group, or government has the right to strip half of society of their most basic rights by force,” the statement read. “Systematically removing women from public life is not only unlawful, it is inhumane.”
The movement urged Afghan men to abandon what they called a “state of passive silence” and to stand in solidarity with women.
The Afghan Women’s Movement in Exile, led by activist Farzana Rezai, also condemned the arrests in a separate statement. The group described the crackdown as part of a broader strategy to eliminate women from public life in advance of the upcoming fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power.
Quoting local sources, the movement said that many of the women were arrested either for their clothing or on suspicion that they might participate in future protests.
“These detentions are carried out without court orders or family notification,” the statement read. “They are a clear violation of international human rights laws and part of a systematic campaign to silence and erase Afghan women.”
The group said the Taliban have breached multiple international agreements, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Both women’s groups called on the international community — including the United Nations, the Human Rights Council, and human rights–supporting governments — to take immediate and enforceable action.
They urged the formation of an international fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations and arbitrary detentions of women in Kabul and across the provinces.
The exiled movement also called for targeted sanctions against Taliban leaders and demanded that foreign financial support to regimes violating women’s rights be suspended.
Taliban have arrested dozens of women in central and western Kabul over the past week.
In one case reported from Dasht-e-Barchi, Taliban agents reportedly raided a women’s beauty salon operating in secret. Several women present at the time were arrested.
