Dozens of women protested the Taliban’s morality police in Herat, Afghanistan, on Tuesday. A video circulating on social media protesters chanting “Education! Work! Freedom!” Another clip shows Taliban militants beating people with long wooden sticks as gun shots crack in the background, leaving reportedly two dead and a “significant number” injured.
Since Taliban took power in 2021, Afghan women have been gradually barred from education, work, and public spaces. The protests reportedly started after the group launched a crackdown in Herat on June 7, arresting dozens of women for allegedly “violating” a 2022 ruling which requires women to cover their faces in public.
The protest in Herat comes at a pivotal moment for Afghan women as Taliban leaders are expected to arrive in Brussels for talks with EU officials later this month. While the EU does not recognize the Taliban as the Afghan government, it is in talks with the group to facilitate deportations of Afghans from the EU area.
