By Sehr Khosla
Fear of arrest in Herat is keeping women out of public spaces and cutting deeply into local businesses.
Women wearing burqas with their children in Herat, Afghanistan. Marius Arnesen. CC BY-SA 2.0.
For years, the Taliban has argued that its restrictions on women are matters of religious observance. In Afghanistan’s western city of Herat, however, those rules are now carrying an increasingly visible economic cost.
Following a renewed crackdown on women’s dress in June, businesses across one of Afghanistan’s largest commercial hubs say customers have vanished almost overnight. Tailors, restaurant owners, drivers and shopkeepers told AFP News that women, fearing arrest by the Taliban’s morality police, have largely stopped leaving their homes unless absolutely necessary. The result is a city where the absence of women is visible not only in public life, but in empty markets and shrinking livelihoods.
The latest enforcement followed the detention of dozens of women accused of failing to comply with the Taliban’s dress requirements, including wearing the body-covering chador or burqa. A rare protest against the arrests was met with force, leaving at least two people dead according to the United Nations, underscoring the risks faced by those who challenge restrictions.
"Since those incidents occurred … there were no women in the markets," tailor Ramin Ghafoori told AFP. His words are echoed across Herat's bazaars, where traders say women once made up the overwhelming majority of their customers.
"Ninety percent of our sales are to women, women come to buy even for men," shoe shop owner Nazeer Ahmad Azimi said, estimating that sales in the city's markets have fallen by half since enforcement intensified. One phrase repeated by traders has come to encapsulate the crisis: "If there is no woman, there is no bazaar."
The impact extends far beyond clothing stores. Women interviewed by AFP described abandoning shopping trips, restaurant visits and even routine journeys across the city because they feared being stopped by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Drivers said fewer passengers meant fewer fares. Restaurant owners reported empty tables. For many businesses, the disappearance of women from public life has become an economic shock that ripples through the wider community.
The effects of the crackdown are particularly striking in Herat. Long regarded as a city of great cultural significance, Herat once stood apart from many other parts of the country. Before the Taliban returned to power in 2021, women outnumbered men among university students, cafes were busy with families and markets depended heavily on women shoppers. Residents interviewed by The New York Times now describe a city transformed by fear, where neighborhoods once known for relative openness have become subject to intensified surveillance, arrests and public intimidation.
“They are spreading fear like a virus,” said one Herat resident, identified only as Hengameh for fear of retaliation, describing how many people now choose to stay indoors rather than risk attracting attention.
The crackdown also exposes a contradiction at the heart of the Taliban’s economic ambitions. The government has repeatedly pledged to reduce Afghanistan’s dependence on foreign aid and build greater economic self-sufficiency. Yet economists have long argued that excluding women from education, employment and public life makes those goals increasingly difficult to achieve.
International organizations have framed this issue in even broader terms. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that Taliban policies have “formalised the systematic erasure of women and girls from public life,” while Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard has said the Taliban have "made life for Afghan women and girls intolerable." These warnings are often discussed in terms of rights and freedoms. In Herat, they are also visible in quieter ways: shuttered shops, silent streets and market stalls waiting for customers who no longer feel safe enough to come.
Sehr Khosla
Sehr is a student at Georgetown University studying Classics and Government with a minor in Journalism. In the future, she hopes to combine her passion for social justice with communications to advocate for change. Outside of writing, she enjoys travelling and reading murder mysteries.