Date: 05/10/1403

Several city bus drivers in Kabul report that the Taliban have issued a new order banning mixed-gender passengers from boarding public buses. According to Rukhshana Media, the directive was communicated to all city bus drivers by the Taliban’s Office for the Promotion of Virtue approximately three days ago.

Omar (pseudonym), a bus driver in Kabul, told Rukhshana on Wednesday, January 26, that virtue officers warned drivers that if men and women board the same bus, the vehicle will be confiscated. He said that on Tuesday, December 25, in the Pul-e-Sukhta area, Taliban officers explicitly instructed him not to allow mixed-gender passengers. “If they see men and women standing together, they stop the car,” he said. “Most of the time, if there are many women, I cannot pick up men, and if there are many men, I cannot pick up women.” Omar added that these restrictions have significantly reduced passenger numbers and severely affected drivers’ incomes. “On the one hand, there is no business, and on the other hand, the Emirate tells us not to take too many passengers,” he said.

This new restriction follows earlier Taliban measures to segregate passengers inside buses by installing curtains to separate men and women. In recent weeks, Taliban forces have also prevented women and girls from boarding buses in parts of Kabul for failing to wear face coverings. The Taliban have not officially commented on the new order, which forms part of a broader effort to impose gender segregation and restrict social interaction in public spaces.

The order communicated by the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Kabul banning mixed-gender passengers on city buses represents the expansion of enforced gender segregation into everyday public transport. By threatening confiscation of vehicles and preventing boarding based on gender composition and dress, the Taliban transform mobility into a site of moral policing and economic coercion. The measure restricts women’s access to public space and livelihoods while imposing financial harm on transport workers, illustrating how segregation policies operate through collective punishment and surveillance.