Afghanistan: Rights reports reveal Taliban brutality against women
A new report by Human Rights Watch has revealed brutal abuses suffered by Afghan women. Afghan women protesters were subjected to torture and repression under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Security authorities affiliated with the extremist organization have recently practiced various forms of torture against women because of women’s protests against oppression, coercion, and denial of education and life.
Brutal torture
After the Taliban took over the rule of Afghanistan last year when US forces withdrew and the government collapsed in Kabul, women arrested by the Taliban revealed their plight, including torture and ill-treatment of their families, that the abuse was not limited to beating and physical torture, as confirmed by the US newspaper Republic World, where male relatives of these women were subjected to electric shocks, according to a Human Rights Watch report. Heather Bar, Assistant Director for Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch, said: “It is difficult to exaggerate the amazing courage of these other Afghan women who decided to demonstrate against Taliban abuses, and the stories of these women show how deeply threatened the Taliban feel by their activities and the brutal efforts of the Taliban to silence them.” The US newspaper confirmed that since the Taliban took over the Afghan government on August 15, 2021, it quickly started to roll back all the progress made by Afghanistan in terms of equal opportunities for women. In the first week of the Taliban regime, women started to take to the streets and protest.
Kidnapping and arrest
Tamana Baryani, one of the first women to protest against the Taliban regime, told the US newspaper that the group stormed her house late at night and kidnapped her. However, she was able to upload a video of the entire incident, which gave a glimpse of the lives of people under the Taliban regime. An other woman said the Taliban kidnapped them and locked them in a narrow room with no ventilation for another 18 women and seven children for five days, the women said that the Taliban did not actually provide any food, water, or access to the toilet. According to the Human Rights Watch report, “The Taliban forced the families of three women to hand over the original deeds of their belongings as a price for their release, with the threat that the Taliban will confiscate property if the women are in trouble again.”
