The creator, an Afghan authorized scholar writing anonymously as a consequence of pervasive safety issues, remembers a line of unarmed village girls who turned again carloads of males — and asks why that braveness cannot be taught.
In mid-June, 17-year-old Shakiba* was arrested by the Taliban’s morality police (the Ministry for the Promotion of Advantage and Prevention of Vice) together with dozens of different girls. Her alleged crime was “improper hijab.”
Shakiba was totally coated in a chadar namaz — a full-body prayer veil — however she was carrying slightly eye make-up, and that was sufficient for the morality police to detain her.
Shakiba has most cancers. Her mom knew make-up was forbidden beneath the brand new guidelines, however she had allowed her daughter small joys in what is perhaps her last days.
Just a few years earlier, when Shakiba was simply 13, her drug-addicted father deserted the household to marry one other lady. Left alone and struggling to feed her youngsters, Shakiba’s mom was pressured to rearrange her marriage to an older man in Iran. At 16, Shakiba gave beginning to her first youngster.
Quickly afterward, she started struggling extreme neck ache. After a number of examinations, docs in Iran recognized her with most cancers. Her husband and his household refused to assist her remedy, saying they may not afford it, and despatched her again to her mom in Afghanistan.
As soon as house, Shakiba’s mom desperately gathered cash from kinfolk and neighbors to take her daughter to Pakistan for chemotherapy. After coming back from remedy, the mom tried all the pieces attainable to make Shakiba’s remaining days as comfortable as attainable.
In the future, whereas Shakiba was out procuring, the Taliban’s morality police arrested her.
Her mom rushed to the authorities, pleading for her launch and explaining that her daughter was gravely ailing. The Taliban initially didn’t consider her till she introduced all of the medical reviews. Ultimately, they agreed to launch Shakiba — however solely, her mom stated, after the fee of 13,000 Afghanis (AFN), an unlimited sum for the struggling household.
As soon as once more, Shakiba’s mom turned to kinfolk and neighbors, begging for assist to safe her daughter’s freedom. After 48 hours in detention, Shakiba was lastly launched.
From the second she got here house, Shakiba has been deeply modified. The one factor she says is that she needs to return to Iran — to the husband who had despatched her away. Regardless of how a lot her mom tries to purpose along with her, explaining that he doesn’t need her again, Shakiba refuses to hear.
Her mom is stricken by fear about what occurred to her daughter throughout these two days in jail. Shakiba is not going to talk about it in any respect. She has change into nearly utterly silent and won’t describe the place she was held or what she endured. Her mom fears she might have been tortured, sexually assaulted, or threatened into silence.
In latest months, the Taliban’s morality police in Herat province have intensified their crackdown on girls. They’ve arrange checkpoints at crossroads, drag girls into vans, and arrest them for hijab violations. In November 2025, they tried to drive all girls in Herat — together with authorities lecturers, docs, nurses, and sufferers — to put on the total burqa.
On June 5, an announcement was despatched to mosques throughout the province ordering girls to put on chadar namaz together with masks protecting their total our bodies, and forbidding make-up and fragrance. One clause even claimed that any lady who wears fragrance “has dedicated adultery.”
Within the quick aftermath, as mass detentions started, an audio recording attributed to an worker of the governor’s workplace, circulated on social media, described a gathering led by Herat governor Noor Ahmad Islamjar at which officers deliberate enforcement of the hijab directive. The governor himself later publicly acknowledged the arrests, claiming the detained girls had “psychological” issues.
For my part, these statements amounted to the acknowledgment of a scientific marketing campaign to additional prohibit and humiliate girls.
But the Taliban are nonetheless invited into worldwide conversations, and the EU rolls out the pink carpet whereas ignoring their violations of human rights and girls’s rights.
Shakiba’s silence haunts me — and it made me bear in mind a unique group of girls, in a unique a part of Herat, who refused to be silent. Years in the past, my father was invited to go to Pista Laiq within the spring. He described the breathtaking fantastic thing about the 90,000 hectares of land stretching between Herat and Badghis provinces — rolling hills coated in vibrant inexperienced and full of wild pistachio timber — typically described as the biggest such forest on the earth.
His vivid description stuffed everybody with pleasure, and my father lastly agreed that we’d go. Our buddy warned us that the roads have been dusty and badly broken, making the journey troublesome. Nonetheless, we ready all the pieces and set off early the following morning.
Some stretches of the street have been so damaged that the automobile needed to crawl alongside ridges overlooking harmful valleys. We lastly reached the Pista Laiq space at 1:00 a.m. Within the darkness, we couldn’t see the fantastic thing about the place, however we might make out the hills coated with teams of individuals — males, households, and tents pitched in every single place. It was extremely crowded. Regardless of how far we drove, there was no empty area left for us to arrange our personal tent.
Exhausted after the lengthy journey, we drove for over an hour earlier than discovering a small empty patch in the course of a valley. We shortly pitched our tents and tried to relaxation. Within the morning, we realized our spot was proper subsequent to a number of teams of males. As a household, we felt uncomfortable and determined to maneuver towards the tip of the valley for a safer place the place the ladies might transfer round freely.
However as quickly as we tried to go additional, the locals blocked our path.
Who have been these locals? A bunch of simply 10 to fifteen girls and kids. Even right now, I can hardly consider what I noticed. They’d no weapons, no sticks — nothing. There have been no males or boys amongst them. They merely stood in a line in entrance of us, our kinfolk, and different teams of males who additionally wished to proceed. With nothing however their presence and phrases, they refused to let anybody cross.
I used to be upset, like everybody else. I assumed, This isn’t their personal property. We’ve come a good distance and received’t keep for weeks. However they wouldn’t take heed to anybody. Their eyes burned with unshakable dedication. Girls and ladies of all ages — young and old — stood fearless. At instances, they even stepped ahead aggressively towards the lads.
My father ultimately determined it was higher to go away. We drove for one more hour till we discovered a unique empty spot. Later, somebody defined the rationale behind their fierce stand:
Yearly, native residents prohibit entry to the pistachio forests shortly earlier than harvest season. Every household claims and protects one valley — or generally extra — relying on what they will handle. This ensures that when the crop ripens, they will accumulate it correctly with out interference.
After listening to this, I understood and revered the fitting of these girls to face their floor.
Years have handed since that day. Beforehand, each time I remembered the incident, it upset me that they wouldn’t allow us to keep. However now, with the present scenario in Herat — the place girls are being arrested for nothing and the nation has change into a jail for ladies — I typically consider these girls. I bear in mind how sturdy and highly effective they have been as they protected their land.
Typically I really feel I’ve by no means seen a gaze so steadfast and resolute wherever else. I want I too had their braveness. I want there have been a thousand girls like them. Or that they may come to the cities and train different girls their braveness, bravery, dedication, and dedication — the identical spirit with which they fought for what that they had labored so arduous to guard and didn’t wish to lose.
But we girls within the cities solely witness extra loss on daily basis, and nobody does something.
When the Taliban created their very own model of Iran’s morality police to arrest girls for “improper hijab,” why didn’t Afghan girls undertake the technique of Iranian girls within the “Girl, Life, Freedom” motion and reclaim their freedoms by sensible civil disobedience towards hijab restrictions?
Nobody goes to rescue Afghan girls. By silence and obedience, not one of the rights we’ve misplaced will return. This silence solely makes the oppressive Taliban stronger and encourages them to launch much more assaults on girls and their rights. Each time a brand new decree assaults girls’s rights, I’m wondering if there may be something left for them to take from girls. Then the Taliban leaders situation an much more ruthless decree and show that sure, there may be nonetheless extra.
I don’t know the place these fearless girls of Pista Laiq are right now. I want they may come and train 1000’s of Afghan girls — girls like Shakiba — find out how to battle for themselves and their rights with the identical ferocity.
*Shakiba is a pseudonym used for safety functions.
The creator is an Afghan authorized scholar whose id can’t presently be revealed as a consequence of safety issues.
Opinions expressed in JURIST Commentary are the only duty of the creator and don’t essentially mirror the views of JURIST’s editors, workers, donors or the College of Pittsburgh.
