# @middleeastmatters on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DZkC3caIrvs
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/66599315-middleeastmatters-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/6f9f802717.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-06-14T10:49:45.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Middle East Matters (MEM) (@middleeastmatters) — https://gondola.cc/middleeastmatters

## Caption

Dozens gathered in the city of Herat in Afghanistan on June 9 to protest the wave of arbitrary arrests targeting women and girls for allegedly violating the Taliban’s discriminatory dress code. 

The Taliban responded to the protests, which were in a predominantly Hazara minority neighborhood, by firing shots and beating protesters.

Medics have reported that at least two people were killed and several more injured. The UN has confirmed that an 11-year-old boy was fatally shot and said it is verifying reports of a second fatality. 

Protesters chanted slogans such as “Education, work, and freedom,” referring to the Taliban’s sweeping restrictions that bar women and girls from education, most employment, and many other fundamental rights and freedoms. 

Residents say Taliban forces are carrying out door-to-door raids across Herat to identify and arrest protesters seen in demonstration videos. Others describe an atmosphere of heavy security in Herat, with checkpoints reportedly established throughout the city, where Taliban forces are stopping residents and unlawfully searching their phones.

The protests took place following the arrest of at least 30 women by the Taliban’s “morality police” in Herat between June 6 and 7 for allegedly violating the draconian dress code imposed on women and girls.

On June 5, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Herat warned that women who appear in public without complying with the dress code—including by showing their faces or wearing make-up—could be detained and sent to prison.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has issued over 100 decrees that cut women off from education, healthcare, most employment, and free movement.

Women are required to cover their entire bodies and faces, and their voices should not be heard in public. They often have to be accompanied by a man when going out.

Experts have described the Taliban’s systematic oppression of women and girls as gender apartheid, which is not yet recognized as a crime under international law. 

Sign the open letter to #EndGenderApartheid in Afghanistan:  endgenderapartheid.today

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