RASC News Agency: The Coalition of Human Rights Defenders has issued a powerful statement condemning the Taliban’s mass abduction of young women, describing it as a “historic disgrace” and a blatant crime against humanity. According to the statement, dozens of young women were forcefully taken by Taliban agents in Kabul, despite all of them being fully veiled in accordance with the regime’s oppressive dress codes. No legal justification or formal charges have been presented for their detention underscoring the arbitrary and authoritarian nature of the Taliban’s rule.
The coalition warned that such acts of repression will not go unanswered. “The people neither forgive nor forget,” the statement reads. “The process of justice and accountability will persist until the day these criminals face trial in an open and legitimate court of law.” Drawing a chilling parallel, the group compared the Taliban’s actions to the atrocities committed by ISIS in Syria and Iraq a comparison that reflects growing public revulsion toward the Taliban’s increasingly draconian treatment of women. According to the coalition, the Taliban have now embraced the same brutal playbook once wielded by ISIS: systematic hostage-taking, complete disregard for rule of law, and the cynical manipulation of religion to justify tyranny. These repressive actions, they argue, are not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern of misogynistic violence meant to silence and erase women from public life.
The Coalition of Human Rights Defenders called on international organizations and global women’s rights groups to break their silence and take immediate, coordinated action to halt the Taliban’s shameful campaign of gender persecution. The statement urges the international community to reject normalization of relations with a regime that operates through coercion, brutality, and systematic dehumanization. Independent sources inside Kabul have confirmed to RASC that Taliban forces have arrested scores of young women across the capital in recent days. Residents of the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood a predominantly Hazara area frequently targeted by the Taliban reported that agents of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice raided homes and public spaces on Friday and Saturday (corresponding to July 18 and 19). Dozens of women were taken without warrants, charges, or any form of due process.
Other sources reported a separate wave of arrests on Wednesday, July 16, when nearly 100 young women were detained in the Shahr-e-Naw district of Kabul. This latest crackdown signals a deeply alarming escalation in the Taliban’s assault on urban women, marking a shift toward more aggressive and visible repression even in areas once considered relatively safe. Families of the detained women say they remain in the dark about their daughters’ whereabouts, living in constant fear for their safety. The Taliban, meanwhile, have refused to offer any explanation, maintaining a wall of silence that has only deepened public outrage and concern. The regime’s continued refusal to provide transparency or adhere to any legal norms reinforces the view that Afghanistan under the Taliban is governed by fear, not law.
These secretive, arbitrary detentions further confirm what many Afghanistani citizens and rights groups have long warned: the Taliban have not changed. On the contrary, they have become more emboldened in their efforts to erase women from public life, suppress basic freedoms, and dismantle civil society. Their actions resemble neither legitimate governance nor religious piety they are acts of ideological terror dressed in the language of faith. With each passing day, the Taliban regime reveals itself as the single greatest threat to human dignity, liberty, and security in Afghanistan. The mass arrest of women is not merely a violation of human rights it is a grotesque display of state-sponsored misogyny that demands urgent international condemnation and action.
