PARIS — Members of the Afghan diaspora gathered in Paris on Saturday to stage a demonstration protesting the Taliban’s recent mass detention of women and girls in Herat, characterising the crackdown as a systematic campaign to erase women from public life.
The demonstration, held on June 13, follows reports from the United Nations and human rights organisations indicating that the Taliban’s morality police have arbitrarily detained dozens of women in Western Afghanistan for alleged violations of strict dress-code decrees.
In a formal statement released during the rally, protesters condemned what they described as an institutionalised system of “gender apartheid.”
“In Afghanistan today, girls are denied education simply for being girls, and women are stripped of their most basic freedoms, including the right to work, move freely, and participate in public life,” the statement read. The group emphasised that the recent enforcement operations in Herat reflect an intensifying climate of fear and state-sponsored repression.
The Paris rally coincided with growing international outcry over events on the ground in Herat. Earlier this week, on June 9, local protests erupted in Herat’s predominantly Hazara neighbourhood of Jibrail following the initial wave of arrests. According to UN independent experts and Human Rights Watch, Taliban security forces violently suppressed those demonstrations, opening fire on crowds and killing at least two people, including an 11-year-old boy.
Demonstrators in France expressed sharp concern regarding the international community’s diplomatic engagement with the de facto authorities in Kabul. The diaspora statement warned that inviting Taliban officials to international summits without conditioning attendance on human rights compliance risks legitimising the regime’s repressive policies.
The coalition called on the French government, the European Union, and the United Nations to take immediate, concrete diplomatic steps to halt the detentions, secure the release of remaining detainees, and hold the Taliban accountable under international law.
“Silence in the face of the current situation in Afghanistan does not constitute neutrality,” the statement concluded. “It amounts to complicity in injustice and the continued suppression of women.”
