West Afghanistan female dress-code crackdown hits businesses

Businesses in Herat, Afghanistan's western commercial hub, are suffering from a sharp decline in female customers following a recent crackdown on women's attire by the Taliban's morality police. Shopkeepers report that the absence of women, who previously dominated customer bases, has halved market turnover.

In early June, dozens of women were detained for allegedly violating dress codes by not wearing the body-cloaking chador or burqa. A protest against these restrictions was violently dispersed, resulting in at least two deaths, according to the United Nations. Since these events, women have largely disappeared from the markets.

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Since those incidents occurred... there were no women in the markets.

"Ninety percent of our sales are to women," said Nazeer Ahmad Azimi, a shoe store owner. He estimated that the recent ramp-up in restrictions had halved his business. Ramin Ghafoori, who runs a tailoring shop, noted, "Since those incidents occurred... there were no women in the markets."

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Ninety percent of our sales are to women, women come to buy even for men.

Since returning to power in 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed numerous restrictions on women's public lives, barring them from higher education, certain jobs, and public parks. A 28-year-old resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons, described feeling like a "stranger" in her own city, stating that the fear of being policed prevents her from meeting friends or shopping.

Herat, once known as Afghanistan's cultural capital where female university students outnumbered men, has transformed under these policies. Economists warn that excluding women from the workforce hinders economic self-sufficiency, with the UN estimating that policies limiting women's participation could cost the economy $1 billion annually. The country is already grappling with a severe humanitarian crisis, worsened by reduced foreign aid and the return of millions of Afghans from neighboring countries.

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I feel like a stranger.