Taliban morality police detain at least eight women in Kabul as videos show forced boarding of white vans
Arrests took place Saturday night in the Taymani area; some local media reported up to 20 detained.
At least eight women were detained in Kabul over the weekend in a new operation by the Taliban's morality police, while some local Afghan outlets said the number may have reached 20. Clips circulating on social media show people trying to force women into a white van as one of the women resists.
Details from the scenes and footage
Witnesses said the arrests took place on Saturday night in the Taymani area in the northern part of Kabul. One resident told local reporters he saw the detentions in person.
Two days after the initial arrests, a video appeared showing two women attempting to push another woman into a white van; at the edge of the frame a man dressed in the uniform of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice can be seen. That ministry, which functions as a kind of moral police, has frequently used similar vehicles to detain women.
One social media post about the footage said: "What is new is the intensity and brazenness in carrying out this repression; but the detention of women in Kabul is not a new Taliban policy, rather it is a continuation of the same five-year project of removing women from society."
The incidents come amid a broader pattern of public-order crackdowns. Separate videos shared online showed the Taliban detaining four young men for dressing in a style compared to the television series "Peaky Blinders," underscoring a wide enforcement of conservative norms.
Photo: printskrin/Iks
