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The Taliban’s Attack on Protesters in Herat is Yet Another Example of Its War on Women

June 16, 2026

• Kimberly (Kim) Hart

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Last week, the Taliban opened fire on peaceful protesters in Herat, Afghanistan, killing at least two people and injuring over 20. The protests were in response to the Taliban’s strict enforcement of the dress code in its morality laws, which civil society organizations have called a “campaign of intimidation, arbitrary detention and gender-based repression.” 

The violent suppression of protesters, characterized as an “excessive use of force” by UN experts, takes place in a larger context of the Taliban’s ongoing war on women, which is so severe that it amounts to gender apartheid. The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) ranks Afghanistan as the worst country in the world to be a woman, with widespread, systematic repression. The Taliban has instituted over 100 repressive edicts, and the country’s criminal code is a laundry list of rights violations against the country’s women and girls, legalizing violence and even slavery. 

“I condemn in the strongest terms the violent, repressive, and discriminatory actions of the Taliban in Herat last week, and since the Taliban took control of the country in 2021. Afghanistan has experienced nearly five years of horrific treatment of women and girls, impacting every aspect of their lives, from education to health to civil and political rights. This is only the latest instance of the Taliban seeking to erase over 50% of the country’s population,” said Ambassador Melanne Verveer, executive director of GIWPS.

GIWPS’s Director of Policy and Programs, Kimberly Hart, echoed Ambassador Verveer.

 “Today and every day, we stand with all Afghan women and girls,” she said. “The actions of the Taliban must not be normalized, and the international community must take all possible steps to pressure the regime to release the arrested women and ensure accountability. The rights to freedom of assembly and expression are fundamental, universal human rights that all people must be free to enjoy.”