KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – In response to the report of the US Department of State revealing widespread human rights abuses in Afghanistan, women activists say it covers only a fraction of the atrocities committed by the regime.
In a statement issued today, April 24, the Purple Saturday Movement, a women’s rights group in Afghanistan, emphasized that human rights abuses in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan are far more severe than depicted in the report.
In its 2023 annual report on human rights practices in Afghanistan released on Monday, April 22, the US Department of State highlighted a series of human rights abuses committed by the Taliban during the year.
Among the most serious human rights violations committed by the Taliban were gender-based violence, violence against ethnic groups, child recruitment in armed conflicts, media restrictions, and others.
The report referenced a local media outlet, Hasht-e Subh, which reported instances of humiliation, insults, physical abuse, and sexual assault suffered by women prisoners in Taliban facilities across the northern provinces of Jowzjan, Faryab, and Samangan.
According to the report, out of the 90 women incarcerated in these three provinces in 2023, 16 of them allegedly got pregnant due to repeated rape and were compelled to undergo abortions in local hospitals.
“The Taliban reportedly ordered these women’s pregnancies terminated during the third and fifth months,” the report said.
Some of these women were killed by the regime after being assaulted and raped.
“At least four women inmates in Samangan reportedly fell seriously ill as a direct consequence of repeated sexual assaults by Taliban members and were ultimately executed by the Taliban.”
While confirming the report, the Purple Saturday Movement says it fails to depict the true extent of the atrocities and the conditions of women prisoners in Taliban facilities.
The movement described Taliban prisons as “torture sites for both men and women,” calling for a comprehensive investigation and examination of the regime’s prisons across the country.
The movement further called on the UN, human rights groups, and other women’s movements not to overlook the “Taliban crimes against women” and to establish a supportive framework to facilitate oversight of Taliban prisons.
The movement emphasizes that the Taliban are inflexible and resistant to change, asserting that as long as the regime remains in power, the repression and gradual demise of Afghan citizens, especially women and ethnic minorities, will persist.
Women activists were not the only activists who reacted to the report by the US Government.
Jamiat-e-Islami Afghanistan, a political party led by Salahuddin Rabbani, the former foreign minister of Afghanistan, insists that the international community should ensure accountability for the perpetrators of the crimes outlined in the report, in accordance with international laws.
In a Persian statement issued on Tuesday, April 23, the political party condemned what it describes as the widespread and egregious violation of human rights by the Taliban, underscoring that the report only exposes a fraction of the grim realities in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
The political party, the leaders of which mostly reside in exile in Turkiye, also criticized the UN’s weekly cash shipments to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, calling on the international community, particularly the US, to cease political and financial support for the regime.
The Taliban were quick to refute the allegations in the report, claiming that the rights of the people of Afghanistan are defined and protected according to Islamic Sharia.
As reported by the local media, Zabihullah Mujahid, the regime’s main spokesman, said that the concept of rights, as understood in the US, does not exist in Afghanistan. He urged the US and other countries not to impose Western culture on other nations.
