Behind the Walls of Taliban Prisons: A Woman’s Account of Rape and a Four-Month Abortion

Source: AI-generated image / Zan TV

The Taliban say they imprison some women on charges including “moral corruption”, protesting, political activity and “promoting atheism” in order, they claim, to cleanse society of corruption and “reform” it. However, accounts from women who have experienced Taliban prisons reveal a shocking and horrific reality behind their walls.

Several women released from Taliban prisons say these facilities are not places of reform for women, but environments filled with fear, pressure and sexual abuse.

Some say that certain women may have been forced into labour, theft or prostitution because of poverty, unemployment and a lack of financial support. However, the Taliban not only imprison them but, according to these women, sexually exploit them and completely violate their human rights.

To prepare this report, Zan News spoke with several former female prisoners and informed sources to document what happens to women behind the walls of Taliban prisons.

A former female prisoner in Kabul, who asked not to be named, described her arrest and what happened to her in prison in an interview with Zan News:

“Thirteen months ago, I was arrested one day in the Pul-e-Surkh area of Kabul. I had arranged to meet a boy and go to his house, but the Taliban became suspicious and arrested me. They first took us to a security district, recorded a video of us and then took us to prison.

“After one week, Taliban forces would come to us and force us to go to different rooms. It was truly terrifying. Every night, I was afraid of what would happen to me. During the one year and one month I spent in prison, I witnessed many things and was repeatedly threatened.

“The Taliban say they reform people, but they should reform themselves first. I had to work to support myself, but why did those who call themselves Muslims do this to us? Every day and night, they made up an excuse and took younger girls from the prison’s communal room to isolated rooms. They forced us to do whatever they wanted and sexually abused us.”

With tears in her eyes, she described the pressure and threats imposed by the Taliban:

“Sometimes they took us out of the room in the middle of the night and said we had to go to solitary confinement because we had caused trouble, talked too much or someone had complained that we had misbehaved. But then things happened that are difficult for me to speak about. We were simply afraid. We cried at night and did not know what would happen the next day.

“One year and one month of my life passed like this. I witnessed many things that no one could imagine. It was not only one person who sexually abused us. Groups of Taliban members treated the girls this way. Apart from the beatings and violence, the worst thing was the sexual exploitation.

“I no longer know who I am. Psychologically, I have become completely mentally unwell. Now that I am free, I am still afraid, afraid of Taliban violence. I cannot even sleep peacefully. I am afraid they will tie my hands again and rape me in that dark underground room. The Taliban have even taken away the peace of sleep from me. This did not happen only to me. It also happened to the girls who shared my cell.”

A former female prisoner from Mazar-e-Sharif also shared a similarly painful account with Zan News.

The woman, who asked not to be named, told Zan News:

“One year ago, I wanted to go towards the Rawza-e-Sharif shrine. I was alone and only wanted to leave the house. Suddenly, a young man came up behind me and gestured to me. I understood what he wanted and finally gathered the courage to give him my telephone number, but I genuinely had no bad intentions.

“The Taliban noticed and arrested me. The boy escaped, but the Taliban took me to a security district and asked, ‘Whose daughter are you, and who was that boy?’ Ten days later, they took me to court, accused me of adultery and then sent me to prison.”

With anger and sorrow, and the terror of those days still visible on her face, she continued:

“Conditions in prison were extremely difficult. They forced us to go to separate rooms and put us under intense pressure. I became pregnant, but one of the women working in the prison, who was a Taliban member and worked there as a cleaner, brought me medicine to abort the baby. The baby had been in my womb for about four months, and I was eventually forced to have an abortion.

“Prison was truly an environment filled with fear and pressure. Every day, we were subjected to force and threats, and I was sexually abused. The Taliban took us from one room to another and made threats. There was no one to hear our voices.

“Every day passed under stress, and we did not know what would happen the next day. When I left prison, I had nothing left. I was only a dead body. My soul was dead. My body may look like that of a woman, but I am broken inside and psychologically damaged.

“In prison, the Taliban do nothing but rape women, particularly younger girls. There were eight girls in our cell, and none of us escaped sexual abuse. During my first days in prison, I saw how the Taliban treated others. Later, everything I had seen them do to those women was also done to me.”

These accounts indicate that the sexual abuse of and pressure against female prisoners are systematic and widespread.

Women in prisons face similar conditions, and their experiences of fear, threats and sexual exploitation present a real and shocking picture of conditions in women’s prisons under Taliban rule.

This report emphasises that the Taliban have not only deprived women of their fundamental rights but have also exploited and sexually abused them in an inhumane manner.