‘This isn't living': Afghan girls beaten in Taliban hijab crackdown

Telegraph

5 days ago

Nafiseh's only mistake was showing her wrist.
The 17-year-old was shopping for clothes with her friends in Kabul when Taliban officers grabbed her, pulling her hair as they threw her into the back of a waiting van.
The men with long beards and American rifles slung across their shoulders beat her all the way to the police station west of Afghanistan's capital, her uncle said.
By the time they reached the police station, Nafiseh's complete black hijab – the covering that should have protected her according to the Taliban's laws – was stained with her own blood.
'She did nothing wrong,' her uncle said, his voice carrying the weight of a generation's helplessness. 'She was wearing a complete black hijab from the Arabs. They arrested her anyway.'
When Nafiseh's father arrived at the police station, the Taliban officers turned their rage toward him, their fists finding a new target in his desperate flesh.
'As soon as he arrived, they started beating and insulting him,' the uncle explained. 'They told him why first he let his daughter go out without a man, then why her wrist was visible.'
To secure Nafiseh's release, her father was forced to sign a pledge – a document promising to restrict her movements even further than before.
Dozens of women and girls, aged 16 to 27, were arrested across at least six neighbourhoods this week alone, with the Taliban claiming they were not wearing the hijab properly. But witnesses told The Telegraph that girls were being arrested even when they did follow the strict dress code – like Nafiseh.
The systematic round-up of women in Kabul represents an escalation in the Taliban's crackdown, with the victims' families threatened into silence. It's also a far cry from the image Taliban officials are trying to present to the West when encouraging tourists to visit the nation.
In the labyrinthine alleys of Kabul, terror now wears the uniform of virtue police – an equivalent of the notorious morality police across the border in Iran.
Witnesses describe scenes of armed jihadists chasing girls through narrow streets, with their victims running terrified and crying, seeking refuge in doorways that offer no protection.
'It was Saturday, and a group of women were walking,' one witness told The Telegraph. 'Of course, their male guardians were not always around to accompany them, but they needed to go and buy groceries.
'Then I saw girls running through the alleys, terrified and in tears, with Taliban fighters chasing after them.
'I asked what was happening, and people said the Taliban were arresting any girl they found on the street.
'The girls were scrambling in all directions. I watched as the Taliban beat them and forced them into a van. It was heartbreaking.
'One of my relatives was even wearing a mask, but they arrested her too. Because Afghanistan is such a traditional society, my uncle's family refuses to talk about her detention. She was held for two days. Now she's deeply depressed.'
Some of the girls were also arrested simply for being outside after dark.
In western Kabul, authorities have begun issuing public warnings via loudspeakers, instructing residents to comply with hijab regulations.
At checkpoints near busy commercial areas, officials from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have been seen monitoring women's clothing and detaining those they deem non-compliant. The Orwellian body has employed women to monitor Instagram pages and report instances where other women dare show their faces online. 'They are needed to handle other women,' an official from the ministry said.
Girls wearing hijabs with decorations, bright colours – banned by the Taliban – or with strands of their hair showing are frequently targeted
Vehicles with tinted windows have been stationed near alleyways and shops and restaurants, ready to bundle women and girls away to be questioned. Many are taken to the Intelligence Directorate, where they can be held for up to three months – regardless of whether any formal charges are brought.
One woman, beaten and detained for hours, returned home to a family too scared to speak of her arrest.
'She doesn't speak and stays in bed all the time. We're really worried about her,' her brother said. 'We're afraid she might harm herself – there's so much pressure on women here.'
He added: 'They arrested her just for wearing a small plastic flower on her headscarf. The Taliban called us in. She wanted to become a doctor, then they closed universities and when she hung out with her friend, they arrested her.
'They humiliated me and my father, filmed us, and forced us to say on camera that we wouldn't let my sister go out alone again.'
In Afghanistan's traditional society, a woman's violation becomes the family's 'dishonour', creating a conspiracy of quiet that serves the Taliban's purposes.
'We are like caged birds'
A former university student described life for women in Afghanistan as being 'like a caged bird, just waiting for men to decide when to feed us'.
She said one of her friends took her own life a few months ago but her family refused to call it suicide as they saw it as a humiliation.
'This isn't living – we're just breathing inside our homes, with no access to anything.
'The Taliban want us all dead. Their problem is with our gender. The entire government is focused on controlling women – so men don't go to hell by looking at us.'
Women have been ordered not to speak loudly inside their homes, lest their voices escape and 'tempt' men outside.
Zahra Haqparast, a dentist and women's rights activist who was imprisoned by the Taliban in 2022 and now speaks from exile in Germany, said: 'No woman goes out in Afghanistan without a hijab.
'The Taliban's problem is women themselves. As a woman, you do not need to commit a crime. In the Taliban's view, you're a criminal by being a woman.'
The temperature in Kabul can reach 45C in summer. But the Taliban requires women to wear long black coverings in this heat, turning the simple act of existing outdoors into physical torture.