Women in Taliban Prisons: Rape, Torture, and Death in Silence

Photo: © 2011 Farzana Wahidy / Human Rights Watch

Three years after the Taliban’s return to power, new accounts from the group’s prisons and detention centers are revealing one of the darkest aspects of their rule: arbitrary arrests, systematic torture, and sexual violence against women. Findings show that women detainees are not only imprisoned without fair trial but are subjected to brutal and inhumane violence during interrogation and detention.

Witnesses say the Taliban force women to strip naked during interrogations and, if they resist, beat their genitals with cables and rifle butts.

One protesting woman, who asked not to be named for security reasons, recounted that she was held for ten days in a detention center in western Kabul and one night was raped by two Taliban fighters. She said: “The Taliban repeatedly asked me who supports you and why you protest. When I did not answer, they beat me and forced me to undress. If I resisted, they beat me severely.”

She continued: “We were six in one room; two girls and four women. One of the girls had just been engaged and was arrested only because of her short length of her trousers. She was raped before me, and then they took me.”

This woman said her family managed to secure her release from Pul-e-Charkhi prison after paying a bribe: “They made us pledge not to talk to the media. They threatened that if anything was said, they would kill my entire family. Many times I tried to kill myself but failed. Even now every night I see the prison scenes in my sleep.”

Similar cases have been reported across the country. Marina, a 23-year-old girl arrested in Kabul for “not wearing hijab,” was found dead in a stream after twenty days of rape and torture. Her family disappeared after seeking justice. In Balkh, too, the body of a young woman was found days after her detention in a Taliban base; sources said she had first been raped and then shot dead.

Over the past three years, the Taliban have imprisoned women and girls under accusations such as “extramarital relations,” “running away from home,” “collaboration with opposition fronts,” and even “protesting against the Taliban.” In none of these cases are fair trial procedures followed. Women have no defense lawyers and no free access to their families. According to sources, many families are only allowed visits after paying bribes.

In Badakhshan, Balkh, Takhar, Ghazni, and Maidan Wardak provinces, dozens of women remain in prison in unknown conditions. In Uruzgan and several other provinces, there are no women’s prisons at all, and women are held in the houses of Taliban officials.

Aisha (alias), a young woman from Takhar, recounted: “My family wanted to marry me off to a Taliban commander. I refused and ran away. On the way, the Taliban caught me and took me to a detention center. I was there for 12 days, raped twice, and beaten every day. Then I was transferred to Takhar central prison and spent seven months there.”

She continued: “Women were forced to give in to the sexual demands of Taliban members. Anyone who resisted was tortured with cables and lashes. At night some women were taken away and brought back in the morning. Finally, after seven months, my relatives sent money and I was released through a bribe.”

These gathered testimonies paint one picture: Taliban prisons are not places of justice but arenas of humiliation and sexual enslavement of women. Threats against families and the absence of monitoring bodies have allowed these crimes to continue in secrecy.

The fundamental question is: how long will the world remain silent about the fate of women who, behind the walls of Taliban prisons, are being driven into slavery and torture? Written by Nilofar Nayebi, journalist