Taliban Morality Police Raid Herat University, Detain Students Over Beard and Dress Code

DID Press: Sources in Herat report that morality enforcement units of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice entered Herat University on Wednesday morning and detained several students over violations of dress regulations, including not wearing caps and having short beards.

According to local accounts, the officers entered the campus without coordination and took students into custody for what they described as non-compliance with newly enforced appearance rules.

Students cited in local reports described the raid as “humiliating, violent, and inhumane,” alleging that the officers used insulting language and treated detainees in a degrading manner.

Witnesses further claimed that the enforcement personnel made no distinction between academic environments and other public spaces, arguing that their conduct was incompatible with the norms of a university setting.

The incident comes after the Taliban administration introduced stricter dress and grooming requirements for students, mandating caps and beards as part of campus regulations.

In recent weeks, videos circulating on social media have also shown clerics affiliated with the Taliban expressing opposition to modern education institutions and calling for greater emphasis on religious seminaries.