RASC News Agency: Local media outlets in western Afghanistan have reported that enforcers from the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice raided a private women’s gathering in Herat on Wednesday night after allegedly hearing music being played inside the residence.
According to local sources, Taliban morality police entered the private home without the presence of male members of the family. The officers reportedly intended to detain several women and girls attending the gathering on accusations of violating the Taliban’s prohibitions against music.
Sources familiar with the incident said that after male relatives arrived at the residence and engaged in discussions with the Taliban officials, the matter was resolved informally. Family members were reportedly required to provide assurances that no music-related activities would take place in the future.
The incident forms part of a broader pattern of intensified social restrictions and enforcement measures in Herat in recent weeks.
In a report published on 10 June, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stated that Taliban authorities had detained at least 30 women in Herat on 6 and 7 June on allegations of failing to comply with the group’s prescribed dress code. Although the women were released on 8 June, UNAMA warned that arbitrary arrests of this nature carry profound social, psychological, and economic consequences for those affected and their families.
The detentions triggered public outrage in Herat. According to local reports, demonstrations involving approximately 100 to 150 people were met with gunfire from Taliban forces, leaving at least three individuals injured.
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice dismissed reports of the arrests as “rumours.” However, UNAMA stated that it had independently verified the detention of 30 women during the operation.
Local residents further reported that Taliban morality patrols have expanded nighttime surveillance activities across parts of Herat, increasing concerns over growing intrusions into private and family life.
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has introduced an extensive network of decrees regulating public conduct, particularly affecting women and girls. These directives have included restrictions on women’s appearance in public, requirements regarding face coverings, limitations on freedom of movement, and prohibitions affecting various aspects of cultural and social life, including music.
Human rights organizations and United Nations experts have repeatedly expressed concern that such measures constitute a systematic erosion of fundamental rights and personal freedoms. Critics argue that the enforcement of these restrictions extends beyond public spaces and increasingly reaches into the private sphere of Afghanistani society.
Reacting to the developments in Herat, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Afghanistan’s former foreign minister, strongly condemned the Taliban’s actions.
“The barbarity and brutality of those ruling our country have transformed it into a land of fear, oppression, hunger, and absolute backwardness,” Spanta wrote in a public statement.
The reported raid highlights the growing tension between the Taliban’s expanding interpretation of moral policing and the daily lives of ordinary Afghanistani citizens, particularly women, whose social space has narrowed dramatically under the group’s rule. As international concern over Afghanistan’s human rights situation intensifies, incidents such as those reported in Herat continue to draw renewed scrutiny to the Taliban’s governance practices and their implications for civil liberties across the country.
