Women and girls in Afghanistan have experienced a hellish year under the Taliban who took over the country in August 2021. “Their draconian policies have deprived millions of women and girls of the right to a safe, free and fulfilling life,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. In his report Death in slow motion: women and girls under the rule of the Taliban (Death in slow motion: women and girls under the Taliban), Amnesty International reveals how women protesting its imposition are detained and tortured. “The Taliban beat us on the chest so we couldn’t show it to the world,” one of them says. “I can kill you now and no one will say anything.” Women and girls suffer from these abuses in complete defenselessness.

The Taliban, who promised to respect women’s rights when they came to power to curry favor with the international community, soon proved they were the same ones who spread terror more than two decades ago.

Women no longer have free access to education other than university education and with restrictions, nor to the world of work, except for training and health care, they must obey the rules of dress and their freedom of movement is restricted, and in case they demonstrate, they suffer from ill-treatment in detention centres. “They discriminate against women and insist on it this year. It is an organized structure to discriminate against a certain group. This is a unique case,” says Olatz Kacho, Amnesty International’s representative in Spain.

In May 2022, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaki assured that “in recent months, no woman has been imprisoned for her political motives or for raising her voice against the government.” However, evidence collected by Amnesty International proves that arrests were made, cases of torture and persecution of those who dared to take to the streets took place.

“The Taliban, very organized, surrounded us and came closer and closer, they wanted to occupy our space. They had pepper spray in case we chanted a slogan. They sprayed me four times, but we stood our ground. My sister was also there, and I was afraid for her,” the woman said. Another tells how a woman was seriously wounded in both hands. When they realized that this was evidence of their violence, they decided to strike at the places that the women had hidden.

A participant in the September 2021 protests tells in an Amnesty International report how about 30 Taliban approached and managed to capture a group of anti-regime women. “They covered my eyes with duct tape. When I asked them to let me out, they beat me with pistols, with everything they had at hand… They pushed me into the room. I was left there for a couple of hours and then interrogated. I was asked who sent me if it was Massoud. They beat me. And one of them told me: “You are prostitutes, you don’t know how to behave, and we will teach you.” Another of those arrested says the Taliban told her, “The Americans don’t give us money for you bitches.”

While in custody, dozens of women who testified describe the conditions as unsanitary. They received neither food nor drink, and ventilation was poor. Researchers have confirmed these facts.

Forced marriages of girls

In turn, forced marriages at an early age increased under the Taliban regime: “In Afghanistan, we have the perfect storm for child marriages: patriarchal government, war, poverty, drought, girls out of school… With all these factors, we knew that the number early marriages will increase,” says Stephanie Sinclair, director of Too Young to Wed, which handles these cases, and cites the document.

In Afghanistan, we have the perfect storm for child marriages: patriarchal government, war, poverty, drought, girls out of school…”

Stephanie Sinclair is too young to marry

It is often the mothers themselves who see no other way out of their own poverty and the suffering of their other children than to force one of their offspring to marry someone who provides them with protection or gives them money to alleviate emergencies. “The testimonies of those mothers who decided to sell their daughters are very difficult. No one would have to go through this,” says Olatz Kacho.

Korshid (name chosen for security reasons) from the center of the country told Amnesty International that he sold his 13-year-old daughter for about 650 euros. “You won’t be hungry anymore,” she said with relief. He also considered marrying off his ten-year-old daughter, although he valued her training to help the family move forward. “If they don’t open a school, I’ll have to marry her off.”

In other cases, these are real abductions, such as described in the Nastaran report by a woman from the province of Takhar. A few days after the Taliban took over the province, a Taliban member came to his family and asked about his three daughters. Her husband told her that they did not have such a custom and that commitments were long. He appeared three times and said that according to sharia she had to give him one of her daughters. He took it, and for several months nothing was heard from her. The family moved to another city to protect their other two daughters.

Arrests for “moral decay”

Women not only have limited access to education and the world of work. They can’t even move freely. Or dress how they want. His life is in the hands of the Taliban, and many times the families, out of panic, have cooperated in this submission to the regime.

In December 2021, the Minister for Vice and Virtue ruled that women must be accompanied by mahram, a male companion, on trips over 72 kilometers. Failure to comply with the rule commits the crime of “moral decay”.

Taliban spokesman Zabijullah Mujadid said that this is not true in everyday life. However, in May 2022, the same ministry indicated that women must cover their faces in public and not leave their homes unnecessarily. Even in Herat they stopped giving driving lessons to women.

Huda, a woman who testifies in the report, notes: “It’s one thing what they say and another thing they do. Even if you are a kilometer from your home, you may be stopped if you do not go with the mahram. Even taxi drivers refuse to take you… Once I lied and said that I was going to the doctor and no one could go with me. The truth is that my father has to accompany me to the shopping or to the doctor.

The Taliban are normalizing misogyny and that is dangerous.”

Metro, 21

The logistics are complicated, Farida, a university student, explains, because there are many widows in Afghanistan and not enough men to accompany the women in their daily activities. Metra, 21, discusses how this affects family relationships. “So they put responsibilities on men as well, and the difference between women and men widens. The Taliban are normalizing misogyny and that is dangerous.”

More and more women are in prison for these discriminatory policies. A prison officer confirmed to Amnesty International that the number of such arrests is increasing every month. A young university student, who was detained for not being accompanied, spoke about the scene of terror: “They began to shock me on the shoulder, face, neck and wherever possible … They called me a bitch … The one with the gun said:“ I will kill you, and no one will find your body.”

Particularly vulnerable are people who have experienced abuse in the past and dare to report it, survivors of gender-based violence. Many of them are arrested in prisons. The gains that have been made in the 20 years of the presence of international troops have evaporated.

We demand from the international community a coordinated strategy to put pressure on the Taliban.”

Olatz Cacho, Representative of Amnesty International in Spain

“Amnesty International is calling on the Taliban to change their policies and protect women and girls. And we demand that the international community adopt a coordinated strategy to pressure the Taliban and send them a clear message that their discriminatory policies will never be accepted. It would be good if selective sanctions were introduced that do not affect the population, ”Olatz Kacho believes.

But Afghan women are strong and have a long history of fighting. Even the youngest stand out for their courage. 16-year-old Soraya had to give up music and piano lessons. “The Taliban have taken away all my hopes and dreams, but this is not the end… We women of Afghanistan will never give up. The Taliban want to silence us. But we are not weak. We are not victims. We will raise our voice against discrimination and inequality.”