Afghan Women Under Taliban Torture, Flogging, and Humiliation

Photo: AP

Under the Taliban regime, Afghan women are not only deprived of the right to education, work, and freedom but are also increasingly subjected to torture, humiliation, and medieval punishments. Safia and Aisha, two women from the provinces of Sar-e Pul and Takhar, share shocking accounts of their arrest, torture, and flogging at the hands of the Taliban, only for not having a “mahram” or not wearing a burqa.

Tortured for Going to the Market Without a Mahram

Safia (a pseudonym), a 29-year-old mother of two from Sar-e Pul, says that in November last year, she was arrested by Taliban officers from the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice simply because she went to the market with her cousin to buy groceries.

“When they stopped us, they asked my cousin who I was. He said, ‘She’s my cousin, her husband is in Iran, and I came to help her.’ But they said we had an illicit relationship. They beat us in front of people and forced us into their vehicle.”

Safia recounts that after being taken to the investigation office, she never saw her cousin again. She was taken to a dark room where three Taliban members began interrogating her.

“They asked what kind of relationship I had with him. I said he’s my cousin, like my brother. But they threatened that if I didn’t confess, I would be tortured.”

The Taliban tortured her with electric shocks to force her to confess to having a relationship with her cousin.

“They applied electric shocks to my body. Out of fear and pain, I was forced to make a false confession.”

A few days later, Safia and her cousin were tried in a Taliban court, and both were sentenced to 39 lashes.

“The pain of the lashes wasn’t only on my body, it wounded my soul. Since that day, I am no longer the woman or mother who could take care of her children. At night, I still hear the sound of the lashes striking my back.”

Scars are still visible on Safia’s hands, which she says are from electric torture; a method documented in Amnesty International’s reports as one of the Taliban’s tools of abuse.

Punished for Not Wearing a Burqa

Aisha (a pseudonym), a 21-year-old woman from Takhar, has a similar story. She says she was arrested by the Taliban simply because she was not wearing a burqa, even though she was wearing a hijab.

“They said, ‘Why aren’t you wearing a chadari (burqa)?’ When I said I have a hijab and that wearing a chadari is not obligatory in Islam, one of them slapped me across the face.”

She was taken to a detention center where about twenty other women were held in one room and were not given food. After a few days, her case was sent to a Taliban court.

“I had no lawyer. The judge sentenced me to 25 lashes for improper hijab.”

Aisha continues with a trembling voice:

“They flogged me in public, in front of people’s eyes. They kept me in prison for another week until my wounds healed.”

She says that after being released, she suffered a psychological breakdown, and even her close friends distanced themselves from her.

“They called me a prostitute… because they had been told lies. No one understands what it feels like to be flogged in public; to be covered and beaten…”

The stories of Safia and Aisha are only two examples among hundreds of similar cases. Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, violence, humiliation, and corporal punishment against women have become institutionalized policies.

According to media reports and official documents from the Taliban’s Supreme Court, in the past two years alone, more than 1,050 people, including at least 200 women, have been flogged in public. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher.

Many women are arrested and punished for accusations such as not having a male guardian, improper hijab, or speaking with unrelated men.

International human rights organizations have repeatedly warned about these abuses. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have described the Taliban’s corporal punishments, torture, and desert trials as clear violations of international law and human rights.

Yet the Taliban continue to justify these acts under the pretext of “implementing Sharia” and refuse to answer to international institutions.

Names have been changed to protect the interviewees’ safety.

This report is based on direct interviews with victims.