The Taliban in Afghanistan’s western province of Herat have recently banned women doctors, patients, and healthcare workers from entering hospitals without wearing a burqa. On November 10, 2025, authorities prevented Shabnam Fazli, a female surgeon, from entering a major hospital in the provincial capital and detained her for several hours, allegedly for not wearing a burqa.
The requirement of a burqa, a full-face and body covering, immediately affected access to health care: Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) observed a 28 percent drop in urgent admissions during the first few days. The restriction has reportedly been expanded to all government institutions and women teaching in primary schools in the province.
These restrictions assault women’s autonomy and violate their rights to freedom of movement, employment, and health services, among others.
In response, activist groups in Herat, Kabul, and in exile have staged symbolic protests, setting their burqas on fire. Some danced and recorded messages demanding freedom, such as: “We burn this not out of hatred, but for freedom. There is no power stronger than a woman’s will for free life”; “A woman’s body is not a site for [playing] politics”; “Your silence helps the Taliban”; and “I’m a woman, not a shadow, don’t cover my voice…. Behind this garment is a woman who continues to dream!”
Forced hijab is part of the Taliban’s policy of controlling women’s bodies to make women invisible. Afghan women and United Nations human rights experts have called this “gender apartheid.”
The crackdown in Herat reflects a broader pattern. In May 2022, the Taliban ordered women throughout the country to wear burqas or black hijabs that cover their faces. Mahram, women’s male guardians, were made liable for enforcing these rules, and women outside their homes were required to be accompanied by a mahram.
In August 2024, the Taliban issued the Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a formal morality codethat prohibits women’s voices from being heard outdoors. The Taliban’s morality police have increasingly arrested and detained women for dress code violations.
Every new Taliban restriction pushes women further into isolation and exclusion. Women in Herat and across the country are resisting in every way they can. Governments should answer their call and urgently act to hold the Taliban accountable until Afghan women’s freedom is restored.