Taliban deny shooting protesters after rare women’s rights demonstration in Herat

A rare public protest in Herat turned into a deadly test of Taliban rule over women’s lives, after more than 100 people gathered to challenge the detention of women over alleged dress-code violations. Eyewitnesses said armed police opened fire to disperse the crowd in western Afghanistan, and videos circulating online appeared to show Taliban forces shooting at protesters and beating them with sticks.

The Taliban denied shooting at demonstrators and said no women or girls had been arrested, insisting the detentions alleged by residents did not happen. On the ground, however, local accounts described a wider crackdown that had already pushed women out of sight and into fear, with arrests tied to a new enforcement push over what authorities called proper hijab.

Casualty reports differed sharply. Some accounts said at least three people were injured. Others said Taliban gunfire killed at least one woman and one child, while local media and residents also said a child died in the clash. The conflicting accounts have deepened scrutiny of how force is being used against dissent, especially when the protest itself was about women being detained for how they dressed.

The arrests that triggered the demonstration were reported to involve at least a dozen women, with some accounts putting the number at 16 or more, including a pregnant woman. Local media said as many as 21 women and girls had been detained in Herat province. Residents said the crackdown followed a Taliban directive issued the previous week requiring women to appear in public with a proper hijab, and local imams had warned women not to leave home without it.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said the reported detentions raised serious human rights concerns and urged Taliban authorities to respect freedom of movement and equality before the law. That warning underscored the broader stakes in Herat: not only the treatment of women and girls, but the credibility of Taliban claims that their restrictions are being enforced without abuse.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have sharply curtailed women’s public life through morality police enforcement and other restrictions. The Herat protest was unusual precisely because it broke through that climate of fear, bringing men and women into the street despite the risk of detention, violence, and now, according to multiple accounts, live gunfire.