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ISLAMABAD: The United Nations on Monday expressed concern about the Taliban’s arrest of Afghan women and girls for their alleged failure to comply with the authorities’ dress code.

In May 2022, the Taliban government issued a decree calling for women to show only their eyes and recommending they wear a head-to-toe burqa.

The Taliban, which returned to power in 2021, has cracked down on the way women dress and behave in public, notably through morality laws forbidding them to show their faces outside the home.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said it was concerned by the arrest of “numerous” women and girls in Kabul between July 16 and 19, who authorities claimed had not followed instructions on wearing the hijab, or the Islamic headscarf.

“These incidents serve to further isolate women and girls, contribute to a climate of fear, and erode public trust,” the mission added, without details including the number of arrests or the ages and where they have been held.

The UN mission urged the Taliban government to “rescind policies and practices” that restrict women and girls’ human rights and fundamental freedoms, particularly the ban on education beyond sixth grade.

A Taliban representative was not immediately available for comment.

In January 2024, the country’s Vice and Virtue Ministry said it had arrested women in the Afghan capital for wearing “bad hijab.” A ministry spokesman, Abdul Ghafar Farooq, did not say how many women were arrested or what constituted bad hijab.

The UN mission said at the time it was looking into claims of ill treatment of the women and extortion in exchange for their release.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Since then, the Taliban administration has sought international recognition while enforcing its interpretation of Islamic law. In July, Russia became the only country to grant formal recognition.

LONDON: A town on the outskirts of London was rocked by protesters who descended on a hotel housing asylum seekers for the second time in four days on Sunday night, amid anger about a migrant accused of sexual assault.

Police in the town of Epping said they arrested six people on Sunday, including four suspected of involvement in “violent disorder” during the previous demonstration on Thursday. Officers patrolled the area around the Bell Hotel throughout the night after issuing an order for the crowds to disperse.

Chanting “Save our kids” and “Send them home,” more than 100 demonstrators, some brandishing British flags, gathered outside the hotel Sunday evening. The protests escalated as night fell, with flares and projectiles thrown toward police vans blocking the entrance. Police escorted a counter-protester from the area after demonstrators surrounded her.

“Disappointingly we have seen yet another protest, which begun peacefully, escalate into mindless thuggery with individuals again hurting one of our officers and damaging a police vehicle,” Chief Superintendent Simon Anslow of the Essex Police said in a statement. “For anyone who thinks we will tolerate their thuggery – think again.”

The protests come amid escalating tensions over the rising number of asylum seekers who are being housed at government expense in hotels around the country. Those pressures flared into days of rioting last month in Northern Ireland after two teenagers were arrested on charges of sexual assault.

Violent anti-immigrant protests spread throughout the UK last summer after social media users spread misinformation about the identity of the person who attacked a dance class in the northwestern town of Southport, killing three young girls. The attacker was a 17-year-old who was born in the UK born in the UK to parents from Rwanda, not an asylum seeker as had been rumored.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned last year’s riots as “far-right thuggery” as police intervened to stop the violence and expedited the sentencing of those convicted of taking part.

Before Sunday’s protests in Epping, local police issued an order that allowed them to force demonstrators to remove face coverings. The later issued an order for the demonstrators to leave the area around the hotel. That dispersal order remained in effect until 4 a.m. Monday.

The demonstration came after eight police officers were injured on Thursday after a peaceful protest outside the hotel escalated into violence. Police blamed the violence on people from outside the community who “arrived at the scene intent on causing trouble.”

Four of those detained on Sunday were arrested in connection with events that happened during the initial protest, police said. A fifth was arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage to a police car, while the sixth was arrested for being equipped to cause criminal damage.

The protests began after a 38-year-old asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault after allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl. The man is being held without bail after he had his first court appearance on July 10. He denies the charges.

“We don’t take sides, we arrest criminals and we have a duty to ensure no-one is hurt — plain and simple,″ Anslow said. “I know the people of Essex know what we’re about so I know they won’t believe the rubbish circulating online that is designed to do nothing more than inflame tensions and trouble.’’

Epping Forest District Council, which provides local government services in the area, condemned the violence but said it had long opposed the central government’s decision to use the Bell Hotel to house asylum seekers.

“We have consistently shared concerns with the Home Office that the Bell Hotel is an entirely unsuitable location for this facility and should close,” council Leader Chris Whitbread said in a statement last week. “We continue to press Home Office officials for the immediate closure of the site and are encouraged that our local MPs are now actively supporting our call.”