The US State Department, in its annual report citing findings from an investigative report by the Hasht-e Subh Daily, has stated that women prisoners in the provinces of Jawzjan, Faryab, and Samangan have endured torture and sexual abuse. According to the report, Taliban prison guards in Jawzjan, Faryab, and Samangan have sexually assaulted women prisoners. The department added that the Taliban have executed at least four women in the province of Samangan after repeated rapes by their fighters. The report reveals: “During the day, 10 female staff members performed duties such as body inspections, cleaning, and general prison tasks. Only male guards were on duty at night, leading to cases of sexual assault against women prisoners.”
On Tuesday, April 23, the US State Department reported, based on the Hasht-e Subh Daily’s findings, that among 90 women, 16 prisoners in Jawzjan, Faryab, and Samangan provinces became pregnant after being raped by Taliban members. As per this report, women prisoners have been forced to undergo abortions in local clinics due to repeated rapes by Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan. The department stated that the Taliban have ordered an end to pregnancies of women prisoners in their third and fifth months.
This comes as the Hasht-e Subh Daily published an investigative report titled “From Torture to Sexual Assault and Murder: What’s Happening in the Taliban’s Women’s Prisons?” on May 15, last year. According to this report, female prisoners in Taliban prisons in Jawzjan, Faryab, and Samangan endure deplorable conditions. Humiliation, insult, physical torture, and sexual assault are among the experiences of these prisoners in Taliban prisons in the northern region of Afghanistan.
Among them, 36 women in Faryab, 34 women in Samangan, and 20 other women in Jawzjan have endured inappropriate treatment by the Taliban in prisons over the past year.
You can read the full report here: 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Afghanistan