Let me pull up the review skill and apply it to this translation. Several women who have experienced imprisonment by the Taliban say the group subjected them to severe physical, sexual, and psychological torture during arrest and detention. According to them, detained women face beatings, threats, insults, and intense psychological pressure, and some are also subjected to physical torture and sexual abuse. These women told the Hasht-e Subh Daily that the Taliban treat them this way to control, suppress, and break the women of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, several human rights activists have criticized the Taliban’s treatment of detained women, saying many of those released from the group’s prisons have still not recovered from the shock and psychological damage caused by their detention, and that its effects continue to shadow their lives.
Farkhunda (pseudonym) is one such woman. She says the Taliban have subjected women protesters and human rights activists to violent treatment and severe physical and psychological torture. “When I left my house, Taliban members put a black bag over my head, threw me into a vehicle, and took me to prison,” she says. “They put me in a room. Another young woman was with me, one of our colleagues. It was clear she had been tortured; one side of her face was bruised. The sound of other girls moaning and screaming filled the prison corridor.” According to Farkhunda, several Taliban members with harsh expressions and no uniforms entered the room, slapped her, and called her an “apostate.”
She adds: “They kicked me hard in the chest and came toward me. I screamed at them not to touch me, that I was a virgin. They beat me severely and pulled out my hair. Then they left, and a few minutes later came back to take the girl who was with me. She screamed for them not to touch her, but they dragged her away.”
About half an hour later, Farkhunda says, the girl was brought back severely beaten, wounded, and unable to move. “They had raped her; it may not have been the first time,” she says. “A few hours later they took her again. This time she no longer had the strength to moan or scream. When they brought her back about half an hour later, I heard the sound of her dying. She took her last breaths. Then they came and took her away. I never saw her again, alive or dead, and there has been no news of her since.”
Farkhunda says she too faced severe abuse and violence during her detention. “It was the middle of the night when they came again. Again I screamed and cried, telling them not to touch me, that I was a virgin. They did everything except have intercourse with me.” She says that four years later, she still carries the psychological effects of that period, and memories of those nights have taken away her peace of mind.
“Four years have passed, but sleep at night and peace during the day are still denied to me,” she says. “When I sleep, the sound of the girls’ screams wakes me. I have been turned into a lifeless soul.”
Julia Parsi, another woman who was arrested and imprisoned by the Taliban, says the group’s treatment of women during detention is violent and degrading. She says women face beatings, threats, insults, and severe psychological pressure during arrest and imprisonment, and some are subjected to physical torture and sexual abuse.
“The Taliban use various forms of torture,” Parsi says. “They keep women in damp rooms, hang them from the ceiling by their wrists, put black bags over their heads, and submerge their heads in water. During interrogation, punching and kicking are routine. But their greatest torture is psychological. They threaten the family members of the detained person and tell the imprisoned woman that if she does not accept what they want, they will harm her family and take her daughters for their fighters.”
The Taliban’s goal, Parsi says, is not only to torture women but to frighten, suppress, and silence them. “They even lay hands on women who aren’t permitted to leave home without a male guardian, subjecting them to beatings, torture, and humiliation when they’re arrested,” she says. “This isn’t about religion or preserving women’s dignity; it’s about control, suppression, and breaking the women of Afghanistan. But despite all this violence, the women of Afghanistan are still standing and resisting.”
Benafsha Yaqoubi, a human rights activist who has spoken with and met several women who experienced Taliban prisons, says the group subjects women to severe psychological, physical, and sexual torture.
“The Taliban beat women during interrogation,” Yaqoubi says. “They strip women’s bodies and whip their breasts and genitals. They consider rape their right and tell imprisoned women: you are our spoils of war.”
Women released from Taliban prisons, she says, still have not recovered from the shock and damage of that period. “Women who were released even four or five years ago still have nightmares, lack mental peace, and live with depression and poor psychological health.”
This comes as several women who experienced Taliban detention told the Hasht-e Subh Daily two days ago that while the Taliban speak of “being Muslim and observing Islam,” no woman is present during the arrest of women. Taliban members touch women’s bodies themselves. They said even the torture and abuse of detained women is carried out by men.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
کابوسهایی که با آزادی تمام نشد؛ روایت زنان از شکنجه در زندان طالبان
