Kabul Reacts to UN Experts Concerns: No Women Detained Over Hijab

The Islamic Emirate said the information of the United Nations about the detention of women in the country is false.

The spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that no woman are being detained by the Islamic Emirate because of hijab.

“The security agencies denied this as well, stating that no such incident occurred. Initially, some women who were encouraging people to not wear hijab were advised; as a result, they were taken to the police district and thereafter released. No one was imprisoned or detained,” Mujahid told TOLOnews.

“UN experts” on Friday ( February 2) expressed “deep concern at numerous reports that scores of women and girls in Afghanistan have been arbitrarily detained and subjected to ill-treatment since early January for allegedly violating the Taliban’s dress code for women.”

They called on the Islamic Emirate to “comply with Afghanistan’s international human rights obligations, including under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and work towards upholding the principles of human rights, non-discrimination and the rule of law.”

“We urge the Taliban to cease all arbitrary deprivation of liberty targeting women and girls based on the strict dress code they have imposed, and immediately release any women and girls who may still be detained,” the UN experts said.

“It should be investigated. It is disappointing to take girls without investigating their crimes, and to put them in prisons,” said Suraya Paikan, a women’s rights activist.

“Afghanistan was an active member of the international community in the past and always respected international conventions and human rights. Now, since the Islamic Emirate came to power, Afghanistan’s past position must be maintained,” said Lailoma Shirzai, a women’s rights activist.

This comes as the Ministry of Virtue and Vice of the Islamic Emirate previously denied the arrest of women in Afghanistan and called it propaganda.