After five years of the Taliban regime, women have been removed from the public sphere.
Originally published in Global Voices in Spanish
Woman in Afghanistan. Video Screenshot "Two killed in unusual protests in Afghanistan against Taliban repression of women in Herat, Afghanistan "from the YouTube channel of India Global Today. legitimate use.
From August 2021the systematic elimination of women's rights in Afghanistan has occurred through successive decrees that have prohibited women from receiving secondary and university education, excluding women from work, restricted their freedom of movement and eventually removed them from the public sphere.
United Nations and international human rights organizationshave repeatedly condemned these measures, which have made Afghanistan is the only country of the world where girls are prohibited from continuing their studies after sixth grade.
On 6 June 2026 at least 30 women were arrested for allegedly not following the Taliban-imposed dress code in Herat, city west of Afghanistan. Arrests are not simply restrictions added to the ban list. These arrests reflect a profound transformation in how State repression operates in the country.
The consequences of these arrests are not only limited to women in detention. It extends to millions of women who change their daily lives because of the fear of becoming a new victim.
Calculation of personal risks
Rumours that Taliban forces are stopping, retaining and abusing women in Herat spread quickly in the community. For women, this has created an atmosphere of ambiguity in which they must take the calculated risk of leaving the house rather than consider it a part of their daily life.
A visit to the market, a medical appointment or a family meeting are weighed not only by necessity, but also by the possibility of being questioned, humiliated or detained.
The central problem is no longer only if all women face the same level of danger. What really matters is that now many Think they can stop them at any time. That only belief is restructuring how women move within cities.
The women in Afghanistan, who were in the past everywhere, travelling freely through the markets, visiting their families and attending meetings must now reconsider their options.
Some delay their exits until a male relative is available to accompany them; other They avoid going out from home unless absolutely necessary. Decisions are often held in private, but together they represent a total change in their public life.
Hence the importance of the arrests in Herat; they cannot be analysed only by the number of women in detention. The increased impact are the invisible changes they produce. Each detention reported sends a message to thousands of other women that daily activities have unpredictable consequences.
Fear as a control tool
That's how the fear becomes a powerful control tool. The repression does not require constant arrests on the street. It happens when people limit themselves if they believe there is a possible punishment. When fear changes behavior, control extends to all times of day to day
Women more affected It is often those who never appear in human rights news or documents. This hidden reality is particularly complex to quantify. Human rights organizations can document cases of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances or physical abuse only when the survivors or families report it.
In an environment of statelessness with a legal vacuum in which the monitoring is invasive and reprisals are fearful, multiple incidents are kept in anonymity deliberately. To avoid unnecessary care, collective punishment and detention, families often choose Silence on justice.
As a result, official records only reflect a visible tip of a much deeper restraint system.
On the one hand, arrests and arrests provide physical evidence of the state's repression; this only captures a fraction of the real impact. The cInvisible onsequence is the expansion of the self-imposed restrictions that fear generates.
An countless number of women quietly modify their daily lives long before meeting the authorities. They leave of their travel if there are no reasons, delay or forget medical treatment, abandon education and professional aspirations, withdraw from social and community life, and also avoid public spaces completely.
Its effectiveness lies in the ability to sow uncertainty and fear so deep that many women change their behavior without orders or physical coercion. This form of repression transforms common decisions into personal risk measurements. Over time, these acts of self-censorship social, economic, civic participation is normalized, it is reduced, even without direct intervention by the State.
The most representative measures repressionThus, not only are women arrested, but also the number of women who disappear from public life and are not reflected in statistics.
The absence of women in the streets, schools, clinics and community spaces is not a sign of obedience. It shows an environment of fear so deeply rooted that it reduces resistance and often visibility in a very dangerous way.
In this sense, the repression The Taliban is more effective not when prisons are filled, but when women are convinced that staying invisible is the best way to survive.
False cooperation ignoring human rights?
From the return to the power of Taliban in August 2021the international community faces a complex question: how best to interact with a Government that exercises effective control in Afghanistan while violating fundamental human rights?
The European Union and others international actors they maintain limited interaction with the Taliban, maintain a communication channel to facilitate humanitarian aid, address national security issues and increasingly cooperate in return of refugeesand migration management.
However, the criticism demands that these channels They have developed as the Taliban continues to intensify restrictions for women and girls, creating concern that cooperation has overshadowed the value of human rights.
This has exposed a dilemma policy. Humanitarian action is essential for millions of Afghans; however, it must not contribute to the normalize a regime that has institutionalized gender discrimination.
Despite the international actionwomen & apos; s rights continue to deteriorate with further restrictions on education, labour and freedom of movement and public participation.
The challenge of the international community is not to avoid interaction with the Taliban, but rather to prioritize that interaction not at the expense of fundamental rights. Humanitarian aid and diplomatic dialogue must be accompanied by persistent pressure for responsibility; and ensure that the rights of Afghan women are at the core of international policies.
