Reports surface days before UN summit on Afghanistan that will exclude Afghan women and debate on women’s rights
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In more than one case the arrests and sexual abuse that young women faced while in custody earlier this year led to suicide and attempted suicide.
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In one case, a woman’s body was allegedly found in a canal a few weeks after she had been taken into custody by Taliban militants, with a source close to her family saying she had been sexually abused before her death.
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Girls and women also say they had been subjected to beatings and intimidation while in detention.
Amina*, a 22-year-old medical student, said she spent three nights in a Taliban prison after being arrested in January 2024. She said she was interrogated by an older man who asked her about her menstruation and whether she was married or not.
“I fell at his feet and begged him, ‘Please, kill me but don’t harass me’,” she said. “He said: ‘Since you are keen to die, I will kill you, but before that, let us have fun with you.’
“Then he started touching my private parts,” Amina said. “I fainted twice during the interrogation, but every time, he poured cold water over my head.”
Amina said what happened to her happened to every girl taken to that interrogation room and left alone with the man.
Christ, well that’s not surprising, but that doesn’t make it any less horrific. As you mentioned several times in the quotes, the UN is meeting with the Taliban this Sunday to discuss Afghanistan as a whole, and the Taliban has demanded that no Afghani women be present for this meeting. This report really calls into question the point of the meeting. If the Taliban are treating Afghani women this way, and the Taliban deny that they are even arresting women for “bad hijab”, then what is there to even talk about?
a Taliban spokesman also denied there had been any arrests for “bad hijab” and said: “The issue of rape is not at all possible because there is not just one or two people [in the room with a prisoner] and when there are three people, such a crime would not happen …[this is] a very sensitive issue for the Taliban. I am sure such a thing did not happen.”
Translation: gangbang is not possible. 🙄
