Hundreds of Afghans have been detained in the Taliban’s latest morality crackdown, with authorities targeting men over Western-style haircuts, trimmed beards and women over alleged violations of face-covering rules.
The Taliban’s morality police made at least 443 arrests between July and September, according to a new report from the United Nations.
Most of the detentions involved alleged breaches of Taliban regulations governing men’s hair and beards, as well as rules dictating how women must dress in public.
In one case, two barbers were held for a month in August after being accused of trimming men’s beards and providing customers with “Western” hairstyles.
The UN also recorded more than 50 cases in which morality police arrested, detained or warned women—including girls—over alleged violations of mandatory face-covering rules during the same three-month period.
On July 10, morality police in the western city of Herat detained 10 women for failing to wear chadors, large full-body cloaks worn by some Muslim women.
In a separate incident, a 13-year-old girl was held overnight for allegedly failing to comply with hijab requirements. A man was also detained because his 12-year-old daughter was not wearing a burqa.
The report said the authorities also pursued people accused of missing prayers or playing and listening to music.
Pictured: An Afghan woman wearing a burqa walks through a market in Andkhoy, Faryab Province, northern Afghanistan
File image: A Taliban security officer stands guard outside a mosque in Kabul
The figures were released as the Taliban intensifies what critics describe as psychological abuse, using morality enforcement to impose its strict interpretation of Sharia law across Afghanistan.
Last month, about 16 Afghan women and girls were reportedly rounded up and forced into a van by female morality police.
Video footage appeared to show a woman believed to be a Taliban official trying to force another woman into the vehicle.
The woman resisted as a male Taliban officer and several other women watched from inside the van.
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The reason for the arrests was not clear. The incident came just one month after Taliban forces detained at least nine women in Herat, even though all of them were wearing hijabs.
A resident of Herat told US-based Afghan broadcaster Amu TV that women were increasingly afraid to leave their homes. “They harass women everywhere under the pretext of enforcing morality,” the resident said.
“Women are being detained, intimidated and subjected to psychological abuse, yet no one is listening.”
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has steadily tightened restrictions on women and girls. The measures include bans on secondary and university education, limits on employment, and increasingly severe rules governing women’s appearance and movement in public.
Herat, once widely viewed as one of Afghanistan’s most socially and culturally vibrant cities, has changed dramatically under the restrictions.
In a report issued in March, the UN’s human rights office delivered a stark assessment of Afghanistan, warning that conditions for ordinary citizens—particularly women and girls—have deteriorated sharply under Taliban rule.
Presenting the report, UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk said: ‘The cascade of edicts and laws announced by the authorities since coming to power in 2021 is having a crushing impact on the Afghan people, particularly women and girls.’
Women remain excluded from all education above primary school age, following a ban on higher education since December 2022.
In November 2025, medical graduation examinations were held without the participation of women for the second consecutive year, after having been banned from medical institutes since December 2024.
Women deemed not to be complying with the chador requirement – the traditional Islamic full-body cloak – have been removed from public transport and denied access to public markets and services.
Meanwhile, a new law demands that girls wait until puberty before seeking to get out of a marriage, and also requires mediation for women seeking to escape an abusive husband.
‘The authorities have, in effect, criminalised the presence of women and girls in public life,’ Mr Türk said. ‘Discrimination affects their healthcare, their access to civic space, and their freedom of movement and expression.’
‘Afghanistan is a graveyard for human rights,’ he concluded.
