The Story of Girls in Taliban Prisons: The Bitterest Headline in Global Media

Photo: © 2011 Farzana Wahidy

With nearly four years passed since the Taliban’s misogynistic rule in Afghanistan, women and girls have borne the greatest suffering. In addition to depriving women and girls of the right to education, work, and participation in society, the Taliban have arbitrarily arrested many of them from various regions of the country under different accusations and have severely tortured them in their prisons.

Zan TV, in this report, has interviewed two girls who were arrested in the western part of the country on charges of having relationships outside of marriage and not having a male guardian or mahram, and were transferred to Taliban prisons. These girls share horrific and bitter stories of physical torture, suicide, forced marriage, and sexual slavery in Taliban prisons. To protect the identity of the interviewees, we have been compelled to use pseudonyms in this narrative.

What happened to Roya during three months in Taliban prison?

Roya, a girl deprived of education, was arrested by the Taliban while returning home from the market along with her sister and cousin, and was imprisoned in the group’s detention center. She describes how she was arrested and the horrifying experience of her imprisonment along with other women prisoners as follows:

“On Tuesday morning, around 8 o’clock, I went to the market with my sister and cousin to buy some things. They also secretly used to go to the gym with me. We walked around a lot and did our shopping. We were in the market until around 11 o’clock. When our shopping was done, we got into a taxi and headed home.

Inside the car, in the front seat, there were two boys. One was tall and thin and the other had wheat-colored skin and average height. They were boys from our own neighborhood. While we were on the way, suddenly four officers from the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue, wearing white cloaks and black turbans, stopped us. They made everyone get out and then, at gunpoint, beat us and forced us into their own vehicle.

When I saw they were taking us in a different direction, I asked what we had done wrong. What is the problem? One of them, who had applied kohl around his eyes, turned to me and said, ‘With this kind of scarf, what Muslim leaves her house?’ I asked again what had happened. The Talib said, ‘Do not speak or I will shoot all of you with one magazine and end everything.’ First they took us to the district station, and there each of the Taliban soldiers looked at us in a different way. They said these ones have definitely committed adultery.

I insisted many times to know why we were being arrested, but it was useless. One of the Taliban said that we were immoral women and that we were leading young men toward sin. That with the kind of clothing we wore, we were attracting men and causing them to fall into sin.

After a few hours, they took us to the detention center. Inside the room, there were about five other girls. The Taliban said, ‘All of you are prostitutes and immoral women.’ They took our phones. The next morning, they took us to the prison. Each of us was taken to a separate room and the door was locked. We had no news of each other. We could only see everything in darkness. It was very hard. I had no news from my family and our family only knew that we had gone to the market. No matter how much I begged and cried to the Taliban to at least give us our phones so we could inform our parents, they said, ‘If you had parents, you would not go out to the market alone.’

No matter how much we screamed and shouted, it was useless. We were crying and the Taliban were laughing. In that house and prison, maybe it was night when a Talib knocked on the door and told me, ‘Hazara girl, it is time for prayer, go and pray, even though you might be an adulterer.’ I lost my temper, I could not tolerate it, I said, ‘Did you bring me here from under a man?’ The Talib said, ‘Just by the way you dress, you lead people toward adultery.’

Inside the prison it was very hard. After two days, I saw my mother had come to the prison gate. Then a Talib took me to a place where I could meet my mother. About ten days passed like that, and then it was my turn for interrogation. I was very scared. A woman was the first to interrogate me. She was wearing casual clothes and spoke in Pashto, but also spoke Persian. She asked me, ‘How many people have you been with? Tell me girl so you can get out of prison quickly.’ I said, ‘I have not been with anyone.’ She said, ‘We received a report.’ I said, ‘I was not with anyone, I had only gone to the market with my sister and cousin for shopping.’

In the end that woman left and then a few more Taliban came. They were registering criminal cases under each girl’s name and sending them to the detention center. They told me, ‘You are an adulterer’ and wrote my case like that.

They forced me to give my fingerprint. No matter how much I resisted, there was no other option because they were beating me. Finally, they took me to prison and when I entered the women's block, I was very shocked. I could hardly breathe. There were many women and young girls in prison from every ethnic group. At first, I threw myself in a corner. I was very tired and also angry. When I asked each woman and girl why they were in prison, they said, ‘We do not know.’ There were girls as young as 14 and women aged 40 or 50 or even older who were imprisoned.

In prison, they treated us very badly. There was a woman who said, ‘You are not allowed to speak with other women and girls in prison.’ Phones were also not allowed. Only the prison staff had phones, and sometimes if we wanted to call our families, they would charge us a lot of money. For every minute of a phone call, we had to pay about two hundred Afghanis.

In the room where I was imprisoned, there were fifteen other girls. Some said they had been arrested for adultery. A number of them had gone mentally unstable and could not speak at all. If we made noise or talked to each other, those female staff members would come and handcuff us. There was a large chain attached to the wall with handcuffs. They would tie our hands with the chain and the handcuffs and would tell the other prisoners, ‘Kick this girl and walk over her.’

I experienced a lot of this cruelty because it was out of my control. After about twenty days, I developed psychological problems. I would cry and scream. That woman came and told two or three other girls, ‘Be quick, tie her hands to the chain.’ The girls, out of fear, tied my hands. Then that female staff member told all the prisoners, ‘Step over this devil girl and kick her so she becomes disciplined again and stops shouting.’

When the prisoners kicked me on my chest, my eyes went dark from the pain. Eventually, I passed out like that. When I regained consciousness, it was very late at night. My hands were all wounded and bleeding. My entire body was in pain. Inside the prison it was very cold because it was winter when we were arrested. There were no blankets or carpets to keep us warm. The floor was bare. A few beds that were there belonged to other girls and women who had been imprisoned before me. They did not give us enough bread to be full, only a few bites just enough so we would not die from hunger.

We all drank water from the toilet tap, and the dishes in which we were given very little food were washed inside the toilet.

Inside the prison, women acted as guards. They would come and tell us, ‘Study, pray so that God may forgive you and you become reformed.’ If someone did not pray, especially the night or morning prayer, they would beat us and hit us with the cables they had.

Women and girls were severely tortured in the prison. When I saw a young girl being tortured under the hands and feet of other women or even male Taliban members, I could not bear it. The cries and sobs and weeping of the girls were more painful and agonizing than anything else.

Many of the women and girls who were imprisoned in our block said that their families did not know where they were. Some also said that they were still in limbo. It might have been six or seven months since they had been in prison but their crime was not clear and there was no reason. They were simply left in uncertainty.

One of the imprisoned girls who was in my room said, ‘My family held a funeral prayer for me and announced my death out of shame from society and people, saying that my daughter has died, so that no one would know I am in prison.’

Some girls in prison were like slaves for the Taliban. They were used for sexual purposes. Other women who shared my room said that here the Taliban forcibly marry the girls. They told stories of other girls who had been in prison before me and were married off to the Taliban.

But for me it was very difficult. At night I would get hungry. There was no bread. Even if we asked for bread or water, they would not give it to us. I spent three months with extreme misery and torture. I had no news of my cousin or my sister, where they were or what they were doing. I was in the second block of the women’s prison.

Every moment I wanted to commit suicide, but then I would say it is a sin and I will not do it for the sake of my father and mother. When my prison term ended, the Taliban came and told me, ‘You come to the prison administration.’ They took me and said, ‘Your imprisonment is over, but your crime is not yet over.’ The head of the prison said, ‘You are lucky that you found a part and your prison time ended quickly, but you must reform and never repeat these bad actions.’

After they took my fingerprint, they brought me in front of my parents and the other imprisoned girls and men. They tied my hands and whipped me. They gave more than forty lashes. My whole back was burning. They hit my thighs and back. After they finished beating me, they told me that I would remain in prison for one more week and would be released after that week.

Believe me, in the Taliban’s prison and detention center, they have made the environment very suffocating for girls.

They forced the girls to give in to the Taliban’s desires, but there were girls who did not give in to this group’s demands and committed suicide.

In the last days of my imprisonment, one of my roommates went out early in the morning and was missing until noon. She never came back. Suddenly there was a lot of noise and the Taliban rushed into our block. We also came out of our room into the block. The Taliban forced us back into the room and locked the door. Later we heard that our roommate had electrocuted herself and committed suicide. She was a very beautiful and kind girl.

Finally, after one more week, I was released. When I was being released, they brought a paper and told me, ‘Give your fingerprint.’ I said I must read it. One Talib said, ‘You do not have permission to read. You are a sinner. Just give your fingerprint quickly and disappear.’ They forced me to give my fingerprint and sign the paper, and I was released.”

Photo: AFP via Getty Images

Mysterious Killings of Girls by the Taliban

Roya is not the only one who has experienced prison. There are many women and girls who have been subjected to torture, rape, and even murder.

Nabila is another imprisoned girl who has a similar story to Roya. She says she was arrested and imprisoned by the Taliban for going to the gym. She spent four months in Taliban prison and has even more painful stories not only about her own situation but also about other imprisoned girls.

Nabila recounts the fate and silent cries of Sharifa, a girl who was mysteriously killed, as follows:

“Maybe two months had passed since I was imprisoned when the Taliban brought a girl of medium height with brown eyes into our cell. A few days passed and I became close to her and we secretly talked together so that the prison staff would not see us. At night when everyone was asleep, we stayed beside each other and talked. She explained the reason for her imprisonment like this:

‘One of the Taliban had forcibly proposed to me through my family. That Talib was around fifty years old. My father and mother said, “We will not give our daughter; our daughter is too young.” But the Talib ignored what my parents said. He came to our house again. In the end, he said, “I will take your daughter by force and you cannot stop me.” My parents, to protect their honor, gave me away so that people would not say the daughter of so and so was taken by force or ran away, the daughter of this family.

I spent three months with him. He always beat me. He had another wife. She was even more unfortunate than me. She was very weak and thin because of all the suffering. Sometimes he tried to strangle me and then forced himself on me for his sexual needs. He always raped me, with violence and beatings. After one night, I gathered my courage and ran away from the house. I took refuge in my uncle’s home. But for the crime of running away from home, they brought me here and imprisoned me.’

Sharifa had become my only companion in those days. But around 2 o’clock at night, someone knocked on the door of our room. Someone called out, “Who is Sharifa? You must come out right now.” Sharifa went out and never returned. Later, when I was released from prison, I heard that the Taliban had taken her that night and killed her somewhere and thrown her body under a bridge.”

Nabila, overwhelmed with tears, says with sorrow and pain:

“Not only was Sharifa mysteriously murdered, but all the girls of Afghanistan are in such a situation. It is possible that tomorrow thousands of other Sharifas will be forcibly married by the Taliban, and if they resist, they will be killed.”