That scene, June 7 -- The woman was already on a minibus when the Taliban officers stopped it. She had her hair covered and her body draped in an Iranian-style hijab - a style worn by generations of Tajik women in Herat. It was not enough. Officers armed with sticks boarded the vehicle, accused her of non-compliance, and forced her off into the street.

the muhtasibs - carried out coordinated sweeps that resulted in the detention of more than two dozen women. Witnesses said the operation began in the Lilami area before expanding to the Almas Sharq shopping centre and the Qasr neighborhood, with some women shouting and visibly resisting as they were loaded into minibuses.

A shopkeeper in Lilami described the aftermath: roads emptied not b...