A hijab inspection, a slap, a warning letter: Inside three months of Taliban… — UN News

A woman is stopped for buying groceries alone. The shopkeeper who served her is slapped and hauled in for questioning. A teacher is turned away from her own classroom for the wrong cloak. These are not isolated incidents – they are the routine texture of life for Afghans under Taliban rule this spring, according to a new report from the UN mission in the country, UNAMA, that catalogues – in granular and often chilling detail – how the space for women, minorities and dissent keeps shrinking. Between April and June 2026, UN human rights monitors recorded arrests over hairstyles, public floggings for broken fasts, and the 296th consecutive day that Afghan women have been barred from UN premises simply for being women. Between 6-8 June, at least 30 women were arrested in Herat for wearing “improper hijab”. Days later, the de facto Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs announced that “Observing hijab” would be the topic of the sermon on Friday, 19 June. Imams received a 10-page document explaining that a hijab should cover the entire body except the eyes, be loose and thick, and contain no adornments or fragrance. During the reporting period, shops and health clinics were instructed not to allow women to enter without a male guardian, or mahram. This was even enforced at shops in Kandahar…