Taliban morality police detained 17 male employees of United Nations-affiliated and international aid organizations in western Afghanistan over allegations that they had trimmed or shaved their beards, according to local sources in Herat.
The employees were detained on Saturday at a reception center in Islam Qala, a key border crossing with Iran in Herat’s Kushk-e-Kohna (Kohsan) district, the sources said.
Those detained included staff members of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Health Organization (WHO) and several Afghan and international aid organizations working with humanitarian agencies, according to the sources.
The sources said eight of the men were released on Saturday and the remaining nine were freed Sunday, June 21.
Taliban have not publicly commented on the reported detentions.
The incident comes amid an expanding enforcement campaign by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which has increasingly monitored personal appearance and social behavior since returning to power in 2021.
Under Taliban regulations, men working in government institutions are generally expected to maintain beards, and morality officials have previously conducted inspections of public employees and private businesses to enforce the rules.
The reported detentions also follow recent arrests of women and girls in Herat over what Taliban described as violations of their dress code.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has expressed concern over those arrests, saying it had received credible reports of women and girls being detained in Herat. Taliban officials in the province have said enforcement of their dress requirements will continue.
The crackdown has prompted protests by Afghans in several countries, including the US, Canada and parts of Europe, where demonstrators have condemned the Taliban’s restrictions on women and broader limitations on personal freedoms.
Since regaining power nearly five years ago, Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women and girls, including bans on secondary and university education, limits on employment and restrictions on movement and public participation. Human rights groups and UN experts have also raised concerns about growing controls on men’s appearance and behavior, saying the measures further restrict individual freedoms.
The reported detention of aid workers comes at a time when international organizations remain heavily involved in responding to Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis, which continues to affect millions of people across the country.
