Date: 30/04/1404 In the past four years, the Taliban have issued dozens of decrees against the freedoms of citizens, especially women, that have systematically and purposefully excluded them from society. Recently, a new wave of arrests and disappearances of girls and women has begun in some parts of Kabul city, a move that has sparked widespread concern among families and women. Human rights activists, women and girls protesting the Taliban's actions have described them as crimes against humanity and a stain on their foreheads. Over the past few days, this group has arrested dozens of girls and women from different parts of Dasht-e-Barchi, Shahr-e-Naw, Koti Sangi, and Qala-e Fathollah and transferred them to unknown locations. Opposition fronts have also warned that the crackdown will not go unanswered. In continuation of their arbitrary and extrajudicial arrests, the Taliban have intensified a wave of arrests of girls and women in different parts of Kabul city on charges of "not wearing hijab" in recent days. Women and girls express concern about the situation, stressing that the Taliban are horribly torturing them, detaining and imprisoning them. Samira (pseudonym), a resident of Dasht-e-Barchi, says: "There was a lot of congestion in Resalat Alley, there was noise. Everyone called their relatives and asked, "Where are your daughters?" If they are at home, do not let them come out. The Taliban brought private cars with black glass and threw the girls they arrested into the same cars. The women said that the two girls, even though they were wearing black hijabs, were not wearing masks, but were thrown into the car with black glass. They don't pay attention to the hijab at all, they collect the girls and take them away." Ozra (pseudonym), another resident of Dasht-e-Barchi, said: "These days, people are warned through loudspeakers to wear hijab. I wanted to go to the Burchi Center. When I came out of the house, there was a black glass car, a Ranger car, and a frontier standing in the alley of Sayyid Bridge, with four people from the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice. I was scared, so I went to the store and put on my mask. When I arrived at the Barchi Center, they had also arrived. They stood in front of the Barchi Center, watching the women from head to toe, as if they were selecting well-known women. I saw one who was wearing a suitable hijab, and they put him in the car. They also took another one from Reza Berger and took him away." One of the girls, who did not want to be named, said: "Girls who are wearing short pants, slippers, without socks, or whose hair is visible or wearing a tight hijab are taken directly to the intelligence directorate. Guilty or innocent, they will be imprisoned for up to three months." A number of human rights activists and women have strongly condemned the Taliban's action and called on the people of Afghanistan to stand up against the Taliban's "misogynistic and aggressive" policies and not allow the dignity and status of women in the country to be further violated. The activists also called the arrest of girls in Kabul an attack on liberal values and stressed that the world's silence on this issue is shameful. The Alliance of Human Rights Activists of Afghanistan has strongly condemned the recent arrests of women and girls by the Taliban as a stain on the group's forehead. In a statement, they said that the Taliban have once again displayed their "inhumane, misogynistic and ethnocentric face" in Kabul by arresting women and girls. "The abduction of dozens of young women from alleys, shopping malls, public transportation, and even hospitals in different parts of Kabul by armed men is a stain on the forehead of this barbaric and medieval group," the statement said, stressing that the detention of girls and women is a clear violation of the religious and cultural values of the people and fuels the continuation of war and violence. According to these human rights activists, the Taliban's recent actions are not an isolated incident, but part of their systematic intellectual structure. The EU has warned that the recent arrests are a continuation of the "crimes" that the world has already witnessed at the hands of the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Reaction of women and girls: Sima Nouri, a women's rights activist, said the videos of the scenes of the arrest are heartbreaking. Quoting the detained women, she says, "A young woman was shouting, 'You have taken away our education and now you want to imprison us? Husina Kohistani, a lawyer, said: "More than 100 women and girls have been arrested by the Taliban in Kabul on charges of not wearing hijab. They are not criminals; prison is not a place for women who are just trying to live and breathe. "We will not sit idly by and demand their unconditional release." Fatima Etemadi, a member of the Women's Movement for Justice of Afghanistan, said: "The Taliban are afraid of women's gathering on the eve of planning for August 15 and use the hijab as an excuse and threaten them to create fear and panic among women. Clothing is an individual choice, and no one has the right to interfere. Girls should return to their homes unconditionally. "The Taliban is a terrorist group, don't recognise it." Julia Parsi, a female protester and former Taliban prisoner, said: "The Taliban have arrested more than 100 women and girls from the streets, hospitals and restaurants of Kabul city and transferred them to unknown locations. The fate of some of them is not known. These arrests are a major blow to women and show that the Taliban are afraid of women's voices. We are the voice of girls, and this voice cannot be silenced."One of the protesting girls posted a video saying: "I don't know how long we should remain silent and how much we will witness oppression without opening our lips. My heart is full of pain and anger. Several girls were arrested for not wearing a hijab alone, while they were wearing a full hijab. What was this violent and humiliating treatment for? Why do they go straight to women's bodies and clothing every time they want to show off their power? Why should women always be victims? "As a girl, I don't feel safe, I always walk in the alleys and streets with fear."Parisa Azadeh, a member of the Afghan Women's Movement for Justice and Freedom, has also joined the "No to Girls' Detention" campaign by posting a protest video. In the video, she says, "We are witnessing that the Taliban, with their medieval thinking, want to silence, fear and destroy the women of Afghanistan. But neither our silence, nor our fear, nor our pain will last forever," he said, calling the arrests "a clear attack on human dignity, collective conscience and the future of the country". These concerns come at a time when according to the Taliban's Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, women's voices are "awrat" and they can only go out with their faces covered and not raise their voices for essential needs. According to the Taliban's order, it is forbidden to listen to a woman's voice from the house, and it is forbidden for drivers to transport women without a male guardian.

The mass arrests and enforced disappearances of women and girls across Kabul represent an escalation in Taliban gender-based repression through coercive surveillance, arbitrary detention, and intimidation. The use of hijab enforcement as a pretext for sweeping arrests—often carried out in public spaces, hospitals, and residential neighborhoods—demonstrates the transformation of everyday life into a site of fear and control. These actions extend beyond dress regulation to the collective punishment and silencing of women, reinforcing a system in which bodily autonomy, movement, expression, and safety are systematically denied. The scale, coordination, and repetition of these arrests indicate a deliberate policy of gender domination rather than isolated enforcement, contributing to an environment of terror and enforced invisibility for women and girls.