How Herat defied the Taliban regime, chanting ‘women, work and freedom’
The chants were familiar. But this time, they echoed not in Tehran, but in Herat. In mid-June, Afghanistan’s western city of Herat witnessed a rare
The chants were familiar. But this time, they echoed not in Tehran, but in Herat. In mid-June, Afghanistan’s western city of Herat witnessed a rare display of public defiance against the Taliban. Women, and this time, men too, marched through the streets chanting “Women, Work and Freedom”, a slogan probably inspired by Iran’s 2022 “Woman, Life and Freedom” movement that emerged after the death of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The protests did not unfold overnight. The spark in Herat According to Zan Times, an exiled media organisation run by Afghan women journalists, the latest crackdown appears to have been planned days in advance. On June 4, Herat’s governor Noor Ahmad Islamjar reportedly met with a group of morality enforcers. On the afternoon of June 5, Taliban officials used the end of Friday prayers to announce that women who failed to comply with the Islamic dress code would be arrested. The following morning, the arrests began. On June 6, dozens of women were detained across several neighbourhoods, including Darb-e-Malik, Shahr-e-Naw, Ab Burda, Jibrayil and Haji Abbas. By June 7, the United Nations had confirmed that at least 30 women were in custody for alleged dress code violations. “Dozens more women reportedly received verbal warnings,” United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said. Then came the backlash. On June 9, men and women took to the streets together in a rare act of collective defiance. The Taliban’s response was swift; within minutes, they reportedly opened fire on demonstrators, killing at least two people, including a child according to some reports, and injuring more than 20 others. Four days later, on June 13, demonstrators returned to the streets.
Abdul Salam Hanafi, the Taliban Deputy Prime Minister for administrative affairs, praised the performance of Herat’s local administration amid widespread protests over the detention of women in the province, according to Afghanistan International. The immediate trigger for the unrest was a series of arrests carried out by the Taliban’s morality police. Women and girls were detained for allegedly violating the regime’s dress code in a city that has historically been regarded as one of the country’s more progressive and culturally vibrant centres. Under Taliban regulations, women should cover their entire bodies, usually with a burqa, and are prohibited from wearing perfume or anything capable of ‘attracting’ public attention. Witnesses described women being pulled into police vans, including some who were already fully covered. Among those detained were reportedly pregnant women. The Taliban initially dismissed reports of the arrests as rumours before later defending the operation as the enforcement of Islamic law. The Sharia law To understand about these arrests, one has to understand the role Sharia plays in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The Taliban returned to power in 2021. Since then, it has governed through its interpretation of Sharia, or better known as Islamic law. While Afghanistan has historically followed the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence (fiqh), often regarded as one of the more flexible traditions within Sunni Islam, the Taliban has adopted a far stricter, Deobandi-influenced interpretation. Under this system, women face extensive restrictions on education, employment and public life. Girls are barred from secondary and higher education. Women face severe limitations on work opportunities and are often required to travel with a male guardian. Even ordinary social interactions and movement outside the home are heavily scrutinised.
The BriefWire