RASC News Agency: Reports indicate that the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has imposed a ban on women praying in mosques across Kandahar and Herat provinces. Witnesses state that last night, Taliban enforcers forcibly expelled women from several mosques in Kandahar during Tarawih prayers. Similarly, women in Herat report that since the beginning of Ramadan, they have been denied access to mosques for prayer. According to sources, for several days, Taliban morality enforcers have stationed themselves outside mosques in Herat, blocking women from entering to perform Tarawih prayers.
This marks a sharp departure from past years, when women in Herat and other provinces could attend Ramadan night prayers without interference. In Kandahar, reports confirm that Taliban enforcers removed women from Haji Abdullah Mosque in the city’s second district while they were in the midst of Tarawih prayers. The Taliban have reportedly warned women not to return to these mosques for prayer. Many families in Herat and Kandahar have condemned the ban, denouncing it as an overt expression of the Taliban’s entrenched discrimination against women.
This latest restriction further exposes the contradiction between the Taliban’s rhetoric and reality. While the group repeatedly claims to uphold women’s rights “within the framework of Islamic law” in response to international pressure, their actions continue to reinforce a pattern of systematic exclusion and repression.
