The United Nations mission in Afghanistan confirmed Wednesday that a deadly confrontation occurred during demonstrations against the detention of women for supposed dress code infractions in the country’s western region.
According to witnesses, Taliban security forces discharged weapons during Tuesday’s demonstration, which drew between 100 and 150 participants protesting the weekend detentions of women in the western city of Herat.
The U.N. mission reported Wednesday it had “confirmed that at least one person, a boy, was killed by gunfire, while several others suffered injuries including from being beaten with sticks.” Officials indicated they were also investigating reports of a potential second death.
Such demonstrations are uncommon in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has maintained control since 2021 following the turbulent departure of U.S.-led military forces. The current administration has established regulations based on a rigid understanding of Islamic law, or Shariah. Opposition is prohibited, and demonstrations challenging government policies are banned.
These rules encompass severe limitations on women and girls, including prohibitions on schooling past elementary levels and restrictions on women’s attire.
The guidelines mandate that women may only appear publicly while wearing complete hijab — including a head covering and lengthy garment covering the full body — plus a facial covering that exposes only the eyes. These requirements are enforced by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
The U.N. mission, referred to by its abbreviation UNAMA, reported that no fewer than 30 women were detained in Herat on Saturday and Sunday. “Dozens more women reportedly received verbal warnings. While the women were released on 8 June, the impact of such arbitrary arrests and detentions on women and their families is profound,” the organization stated.
UNAMA urged officials to withdraw policies limiting women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan, emphasizing that law enforcement “must comply with international legal standards.”
“Individuals have the right to express dissent peacefully without fear of violence, intimidation or reprisals,” the statement read.
Herat police command spokesperson Sayed Masoud Hosseini declared Wednesday that police “takes a serious, Shariah, and principled approach to any action that disrupts public security.”
He stated “a number of rioters” had assembled Tuesday “under the pretext of protesting issues related to the observance of the hijab and opposition to the Islamic hijab, and acted to disrupt public order.” He indicated security forces’ intervention “brought the situation under control in the shortest possible time.”
“The Herat Provincial Security Command once again emphasizes that individual and social freedoms must be implemented within the framework of Shariah law and social values, and any behavior or action that disrupts public security, creates tension, and disrupts public order is unacceptable.”
On Monday, Afghanistan’s vice and virtue ministry rejected reports regarding arrests and detentions of women.
“The issues being spread about women being arrested in Herat are all rumors,” the ministry announced, noting that wearing the “hijab is a divine command, a law that we are obliged to implement.”
Georgette Gagnon, the U.N.’s Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and officer in charge of UNAMA, explained that detaining women in Afghanistan “carries enormous stigma, which can put women at risk of further violence and isolation in their families and communities even after they are released.”
She emphasized that authorities were “obliged under international law to uphold the rights of all Afghans to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, liberty and security of person, and freedom from arbitrary detention.”
