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Photo: Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says that one out of every three children in Afghanistan does not attend school. According to the organization, 60 percent of these children are girls. UNICEF stated that in cooperation with the World Bank in Asia, it supports the creation of educational classes for adolescent girls. The organization emphasized that it helps girls in Afghanistan who have been deprived of their right to attend school to continue their education through "community-based classes." This data is being published at a time when, since the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, women and girls have been banned from receiving education. The group has also recently shut down a number of local educational classes in several provinces.

Photo: AFP The Taliban have flogged twelve individuals, including three women, in the provinces of Kabul, Kunduz, and Logar. These individuals were punished on charges of "extramarital relations" and "drug trafficking." According to a statement by the Taliban’s Supreme Court, three people in Logar, including one woman, were flogged in public on charges of extramarital relations. The statement notes that two of them received 30 lashes each, and the third received 39 lashes. In Kunduz province, the Taliban court reported that a woman and a man in Qala-e-Zal district were each sentenced to 39 lashes and three years of imprisonment. In Kabul, seven individuals, including one woman, were flogged on various charges. According to the court, one woman and one man received 39 lashes and were sentenced to two years in prison for extramarital relations. Five others were flogged with 20 to 35 lashes and sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight months to three years for buying and selling narcotic tablets and hashish. Human rights organizations and the United Nations have repeatedly condemned the Taliban’s use of corporal punishment and desert trials, calling them serious violations of human rights and contrary to the principles of fair trial. However, the Taliban have continued to ignore these criticisms.

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.”

Photo: 8am.media The Taliban's Department for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Uruzgan province has reported the release of a woman who had been imprisoned in her home by her husband for four years. According to the department’s statement, the woman was freed after enduring four years of house arrest and severe torture by her husband. The Taliban stated that the woman's husband, named Sardar Mohammad and a resident of Dehrawud district in Uruzgan, had kept his wife imprisoned at home and subjected her to ongoing abuse and torture. According to the Taliban, the man is also accused of killing their three children. The head of the Taliban’s Department for the Propagation of Virtue in Uruzgan said that two of the woman’s children died during her pregnancies as a result of the intense torture, and the third child lost their life due to neglect and lack of care. Sources confirmed that Sardar Mohammad, aged 45, has been arrested by the Taliban and sentenced to seven years in prison by the group’s court. This comes amid growing reports in recent years of increased violence against women across various provinces in Afghanistan. A significant portion of this violence occurs within families and has in many cases led to imprisonment, torture, and even the death of women and girls.

Photo: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says that thousands of Afghan citizens have been forced to leave Pakistan, and the majority of the vulnerable individuals among the returnees are women and children. In a message published on the social media platform X, the organization stated that its teams are present at border points, providing returnees with services such as food assistance, cash aid, health care, psychosocial support, and protection services. IOM emphasized that half of the Afghans returning to the country rely on humanitarian aid. The organization also announced last week that over the past month, 127,000 Afghan citizens have returned from Pakistan.

Photo: RTA As a result of two separate traffic incidents in Logar province, two women and a child lost their lives, and twelve others were injured. According to the Taliban, one of the incidents took place in the Kotal-e-Tirah area on the Logar-Paktia highway, resulting in the deaths of two women and a child, while eight others were injured. In another incident that occurred in the Mohammad Agha district of this province, four more people were injured. It is worth mentioning that hundreds of citizens lose their lives every year in Afghanistan due to traffic accidents. Driver negligence, poor road conditions, and the lack of traffic signs are considered the main causes of these incidents.

Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Andrew Saberton, the Executive Deputy Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), stated following his recent visit to Afghanistan that the suspension of US financial aid has worsened the humanitarian crisis in the country. During a press conference yesterday, Saberton emphasized that the $100 million aid from the United States to this organization was halted simultaneously with the expulsion of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. According to him, this move will deprive 6.3 million people, mostly women, of life-saving care provided by the United Nations Population Fund. He warned that refugees returning from neighboring countries might face serious threats inside Afghanistan. The Executive Deputy Director of UNFPA also added that the deprivation of education for girls has paved the way for an increase in forced and early marriages. Saberton specified that the main victims of these aid cuts are women and girls who need health and medical services. Previously, Tom Fletcher, the UN Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and the Head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), had also visited Afghanistan and warned about the humanitarian crisis and the devastating impact of the aid cuts.

Social Media The Taliban's Supreme Court announced that five people, including a woman, were flogged in Bagram district of Parwan province on charges of what has been described as "adultery." According to a statement released on Thursday (May 15), these individuals were sentenced by the Primary Court of Bagram District to two to three years of imprisonment and 39 lashes. This sentence was carried out in public after being confirmed by the Taliban's Supreme Court. The statement mentioned that the flogging was carried out in the presence of local Taliban officials and local residents. In the announcement, the head of the Taliban's Appeals Court emphasized that these sentences are implemented to prevent misinformation and to raise public awareness about Islamic Sharia law. This comes as the Taliban's desert courts continue to operate after the group's return to power in Afghanistan, and so far, more than a thousand people have been flogged.

Photo: Shah Marai/AFP The Journalists Support Organization in Afghanistan has expressed concern over the recent statements made by officials from the Taliban's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice regarding the legal prosecution of social media use. The organization described this action as a serious threat to freedom of expression and journalistic activities. In a statement released, the organization emphasized that imposing such restrictions on cyberspace not only diminishes media freedom but also represents a clear violation of human rights and media sovereignty. In its statement, the Journalists Support Organization called the Taliban's action a direct threat to freedom of expression and urged international organizations, human rights groups, and the global community to take action to protect freedom of expression and media activities in Afghanistan. The organization also called on media outlets, journalists, and social media activists to protect themselves against these threats and prioritize their digital security to continue their online activities. The Journalists Support Organization further urged human rights organizations, international bodies, and other related institutions to support freedom of expression in Afghanistan during this "sensitive period" and to provide legal and humanitarian assistance to protect media activists from similar threats. This comes after the Taliban's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice previously announced that the unlawful use of social media would result in legal prosecution; a statement that sparked widespread reactions from human rights organizations and media activists.

Image Credit: AP Photo/Felipe Dana - Symbolic Representation What Do Drug-Addicted Women Endure in Taliban's Addiction Treatment Prisons?   Since the Taliban's return to power in 2021, women and girls have endured numerous forms of torture, ranging from public lashings to sexual abuse in the group's prisons and addiction treatment centers.   According to statistics released by the Taliban's Counter Narcotics Directorate, more than 4 million people across Afghanistan are addicted to drugs, with a significant portion of this figure consisting of women, girls, and children. However, in 2022, the group initiated the process of collecting and treating individuals addicted to drugs, a process during which drug-addicted women have fallen victim to sexual abuse and lust-driven abuses by the Taliban.   Zan TV , in a report, interviewed three women in Afghanistan. These women stated that due to their addiction to drugs, they were subjected to sexual abuse and lust-driven abuses by the Taliban in prisons and addiction treatment centers, not only individually but also in groups.   Rubika: "In the middle of the night, it wasn't just one Talib; three or four of them would rape me."   We meet 25-year-old Rubika, who has not only been a victim of the bitter smoke of addiction but also of the Taliban's lust-driven abuses, with a tired and blank gaze in the outskirts of a remote village in Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province.   She says, with a voice hoarse from drug smoke, coupled with the sorrow and disgrace of notoriety, while holding her two-and-a-half-year-old child in her loving motherly embrace, that she fell victim to addiction in her adolescence due to a lack of guardian. However, after the Taliban collected drug addicts and transferred them to addiction treatment centers or their prisons, she was repeatedly gang-raped by the group's forces.   "I was young when I became addicted with my uncle; my uncle was a drug smuggler. When the Taliban collected us from the roadsides, for a while they didn't do anything. After a few months passed and we regained our health, every night the Taliban would come inside the camp, separate the more attractive girls and women, and gang-rape me many times."   Tears of shame and disgrace prevent Rubika from continuing to speak. She pauses for a moment, then with a deep sigh, she says that four years ago, her uncle forcibly married her off to a man more than 30 years older than her. However, two years ago, because of her addiction, her husband divorced her.   "I had no father; I lived with my uncle and became addicted. But my uncle forced me to marry a man who was thirty years older than me. I have a child from him. My elder child, who was a daughter, passed away. Now, I don’t know what to do with my life," she said. Rubika says she is faced with difficult and challenging choices between the need to save herself and take care of her child, as she says that after being released from the Taliban's addiction treatment center, she developed severe mental and psychological illnesses.   She compared the Taliban's addiction treatment center to a prison and a dungeon, saying: "Its name was the addiction treatment center, but during the days we wouldn't even get food, and at nights, it wasn't just one Talib; three or four of them would rape me because they said this girl is pretty. The Taliban would take many girls and women outside and rape them."   Faiza: "They didn't just rape me; they tortured me to force me into intercourse."   Thirty-year-old Faiza also says that during eight months, she was subjected to more than 50 instances of sexual assault and torture by the Taliban.   "I spent eight months in the Taliban's addiction treatment center. Every day, under different excuses, the Taliban would take me out of the room where I was with the other women and rape me. They didn't just rape me; they tortured me to force me into intercourse," she said.   According to Faiza, she is addicted to opium, which she first used to relieve severe headaches, but that relief led to a constant pain and sexual exploitation by the Taliban.   "I had a lot of headaches, an elderly woman told me to put some opium in my tea and drink it; it would relieve my headache. I did it, and my pain eased a little. From that day on, I became addicted to opium, until the Taliban came, collected us from the streets, and took us to their prisons." Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images - Symbolic Representation Faiza endured many hardships and difficulties in the Taliban's addiction treatment center. She says that the Taliban, in their pursuit of sexual pleasure, forcibly subjected her to abuse. To achieve their goals, they even burned her thighs and back with hot metal rods.   "I was a girl and I had no relationship with anyone, but in the first days when the Taliban came, one of them told me to come into this room because he had something to do. I went, and he told me that I had to do this. I said it's a sin, you are Muslims. He said not to raise my voice. He forced me to do it. I hated myself and the Taliban so much. After that day, he kept repeating it. When I didn't agree, he would burn my back and my thighs with hot metal rods."   Nilofar: "I got caught in two disgraces; one the disgrace of addiction, and the other the disgrace of the Taliban's rape."   Nilofar was arrested by the Taliban from the roadside in 2024 due to her addiction and was taken to one of their addiction treatment centers. She is a 23-year-old girl who became addicted five years ago along with her brother. But now she says the sorrow and burden of two disgraces weigh heavily on her shoulders."What should I say? I got caught in two disgraces, first the disgrace of addiction, and second the disgrace of the Taliban's rape in the addiction treatment center. The Taliban showed no mercy. Whenever they wanted, they would come and force us to sleep with them."   Nilofar, with eyes full of tears, recounts her cries and screams under the hands and feet of the Taliban's misogynistic forces.   "They raped me by force, not just once, but over and over again. I would scream, I would cry, but no one heard my voice. All they cared about was satisfying their own lust. They would force me to take pills so I wouldn't get pregnant. They said if I got pregnant, they would kill me."   It is not only these women who have been sexually abused by the Taliban in addiction treatment centers due to their addiction; a large number of others are also part of this caravan, but because of security concerns and societal shame, they are not willing to speak about the Taliban's mistreatment.