From FIDH:
“Broken promises: Civil
society under siege after 100 days of Taliban takeover”
One hundred days after the
Taliban’s violent and illegal seizing of power in Afghanistan, Afghan civil
society is under siege. For women and girls, human rights defenders,
journalists, and anyone daring to speak up for their rights, Afghanistan is not
safe. In an attempt to forcefully suppress civil society and any form of
dissent, the Taliban and its allies have carried out serious human rights
violations and abuses, from arbitrary arrests and detentions, to torture,
violent beatings, and house searches. In addition, over the past 100 days, the
rule of law has collapsed. The absence of appropriate mechanisms to investigate
abuses means that human rights violations remain largely unaddressed.
One of the Taliban’s first acts
since taking over of the country on 15 August 2021 was to reassure Afghans of
their safety. The Taliban announced (but never officially promulgated) a
general amnesty. No “revenge”, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid declared in
the group’s first press conference on 17 August. This was notable given the terror wrought by
the Taliban during its campaign to take control of various provinces in the
lead-up to its takeover of Kabul, the past 20 years of conflict, and the deeply
engrained memories of the Taliban’s first period of rule, from 1996 to 2001.
Correctly identifying women and
girls, civil society institutions, and individuals as those who actively
denounced and feared Taliban rule the most, the Taliban attempted to convince
Afghans and the international community that it would guarantee fundamental
human rights of women and girls, and that Afghanistan’s vibrant media could
continue to function. Emphasizing the Taliban’s change, Mujahid said: “There’s
a huge difference between us, in comparison to 20 years ago.”
These words have been quickly
contradicted by the situation on the ground in Afghanistan, where women and
girls, human rights defenders, judges, and journalists, have been among the
Taliban’s primary targets. Indeed, the past 100 days have shown continuity with
the Taliban’s past repressive actions. These actions are not limited to the
group’s previous period in power, but include attacks committed in the year
leading up to the 15 August violent takeover, when the Taliban’s campaign of
targeted killings of government workers and civil society members, and its
violent suppression of anyone daring to oppose the group, intensified. With the
start of the intra-Afghan talks in September 2020, this campaign targeted civil society with
brutal precision: journalists, media workers, and human rights defenders, were
among the Taliban’s primary targets. According to UNAMA, from 1 October 2020 to
31 January 2021, 11 individuals – five human rights defenders and six media
workers – were killed.
Reports of violations of the rights
of religious and ethnic minorities, reprisals against former members of the armed
forces, police and government workers, and systematic intimidation and
harassment of civilians also point to the Taliban’s policy of repression. The
Taliban’s severe repression of civil society has left no room for dissent,
making it harder, if not impossible, for those inside the country, to hold the
Taliban to account for their actions. Although journalists, activists, and
protesters, including women and girls, have tried to speak out, the Taliban has
shown no willingness to address their concerns, instead choosing to silence and
violently suppress those who criticized them. All these violations have been
committed with complete impunity. The rule of law in Afghanistan has fully
collapsed since the Taliban takeover, creating a situation in which lack of
accountability for abuses prevails. National courts are no longer functioning, while
Taliban customary courts around the country continue their work. Police and
other law enforcement agencies are not carrying out their duties. Judges and
prosecutors live in fear of revenge attacks by former Taliban detainees, and
there is no no indication the Taliban intends to respect the existing legal
framework and judicial processes. Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, one of the founders
of the Taliban and the chief enforcer of its harsh interpretation of Islamic
law when the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan, declared that it would once again
carry out executions and amputations of hands, though perhaps not in public.
“Cutting off of hands is very necessary for security,” he said, claiming such
punishment had a deterrent effect. Since
15 August, the crisis in Afghanistan has been the focus of many international
fora, including UN Security Council meetings, the UN Human Rights Council’s
31st special session and 48th regular session, and G7 and G20 meetings.
However, the international community has thus far failed to chart an adequate
path for the protection of rights, and to hold perpetrators of human rights
violations accountable.
This briefing note focuses on the
impact that the Taliban’s repressive rule has had on civil society, including
on women and girls, human rights defenders, and the media. It concludes with
recommendations for the international community. The document is based on
interviews conducted by FIDH with six members of civil society (five women and
one man): four civil society activists and two school girls from Kabul,
Badakhshan, and Uruzgan Provinces. Their names have been changed to protect
their identities.
Staggering rollback in women’s
and girls’ rights A rapid and steep deterioration in women’s and girls’
rights has left millions of Afghan women and girls deprived of access to
justice, education, employment, and healthcare. These violations contravene
Afghanistan’s obligations under several human rights treaties to which it is a
state party, including: the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR); and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
The Taliban is well aware the world is watching. As a result, the group has
made numerous public statements to express their commitment to the respect of
women’s and girls’ rights. The Taliban has claimed women and girls would have
“all their rights within Islam.” Indeed, on 18 August, Taliban spokesperson
Suhail Shaheen provided a rosy picture of women’s access to education and
employment under Taliban rule: “Yes, the women, they have a right to education
and to work so they can hold different positions and jobs right now. The
doctors who have started serving. The teachers have started teaching. And also
in other fields, the women are working. The journalist women, they have started
working, by observing hijab.” However,
women’s active participation and contribution to Afghan society is far from
reality. Severe restrictions imposed by the Taliban’s on women’s rights to
freedom of movement, education, health, and work are in stark contrast to the
group’s statements and have had a negative impact on large segments of Afghan’s
society.
Restriction on freedom of
movement limits access to education, healthcare, and employment Under
Taliban rule, many of the women who had previously contributed greatly to
society by working in various professions find themselves forced to stay home
and unsure of their future. Women’s freedom of movement has been
impacted by the enforcement of the mahram rule, which prohibits women from
leaving their homes without a male relative. Female government workers have been told to
stay home. The Taliban’s ban on female
aid workers has resulted in fewer women and girls having access to critical
aid. The group’s restrictions on women’s
freedom of movement and employment mean that fewer women are operating and
accessing vital health and education services. Restricting women’s freedom of
movement and access to employment has profound consequences in a country where
access to healthcare and education was already limited prior to Taliban rule.
Prior to the Taliban takeover, 3.7 million children were not in school in
Afghanistan, and 60% of them were girls.
In 2020, approximately a third of the population had “no access to a functional
health centre within two hours from their home.” Prior to 15 August, Kawsar, a 23-year-old
women’s rights activist, worked to advocate for women’s rights in Keshem,
Badakhshan Province. Kawsar raised awareness of women’s rights and domestic
violence issues in her community. “Women are not active under the Islamic
Emirate [the Taliban], we can not even leave our homes. We feel under threat –
unknown numbers call us. It is very difficult for us to live in the Islamic
Emirate,” she told FIDH. Kawsar highlighted how the mahram rule violated
women’s rights: “Women who went to the city without mahram were beaten. I was a
women’s rights activist myself, and [previously] I did not wear a chadari [a
full face and body covering hijab]. It is very difficult for us to go to the
doctor or to the city when we have to go with a mahram and to wear a chadari.”
Simin, a woman human rights defender working in Kabul described the changes
brought about by Taliban rule: “Now I don’t have the right to work, study or
freedom; I don’t have the right to walk around freely. I am now at home like a
prisoner. I feel I am in a cage which I cannot escape from.” In the
media sector, where men make up the majority of employees, women have been
disproportionately impacted. Following the Taliban takeover, 85% of women media
workers employed by the eight biggest media companies in Kabul quit their jobs.
[17] At the end of August, it was reported that of the 510 women employed by
the eight largest media companies in Afghanistan, only 76 women (39 of whom are
journalists) were working. All 140 women
employed by state broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) stopped
working. Zan TV and Bano TV, two
television stations that employed 82 women and had programs that cantered on
women, shuttered their operations. On 21
November, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention
of Vice, issued an eight-point directive that bans female actors from TV shows
and demands that female journalists wear hijab during presentations. Like all other girls and women FIDH spoke to,
Kawsar recounted the psychological impact of the past 100 days - or longer, for
provinces, such as Badakhshan, that fell to the Taliban earlier than Kabul.
“Under the Emirate, I have developed psychological issues [...]. I have become
one of those angry people. If it continues like this that they don’t give women
rights, work or jobs – this will destroy us.” She sent FIDH photos showing her
speaking to rooms packed with rural women, saying “When I remember my work, I
always cry, and I tell myself I wish those days would repeat.”
Access to support and redress
mechanisms reduced Women’s ability to safely access redress mechanisms and
vital domestic violence support, such as shelters and complaint procedures, has
been weakened by the Taliban’s closure of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. In addition, given the general environment of
threats, harassment, and intimidation against women activists, human rights
defenders, and other local civil society members, they do not feel safe to
continue in their work. Taliban
rule has broken previous networks of support available to women. For instance,
it is unclear if shelters can continue to operate under Taliban rule. Shelters
have been a vital resource to women in a country where 35% of women experience
intimate partner violence (IPV) - a figure that rises to above 84% in Herat,
Ghor, and Wardak, which are among the highest IPV rates experienced in any city
in the world. For now, Women for Afghan Women, an NGO which runs a network of
32 shelters and other facilities for women and children in 14 provinces, has
said it would not be accepting new requests from women. Women’s rights support mechanisms, have
been mostly run by women for women. In addition to curtailing access to these
vital mechanisms and services, closure of these organizations also limits
employment opportunities for women.
Education for girls banned The
Taliban are marginalizing millions of Afghan school girls who aspire to study
and contribute to the development of their country by undermining their right
to education. In a country where there is still a collective memory of
school-age girls being forced to remain at home, missing out on the chance of
an education, shows utter contempt for Afghan women’s and girls’ human rights.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world in which girls’ secondary
education is banned. Since 17 September, secondary schools for girls
(corresponding to ages 12 to 17/18) remain closed in at least 28 of the
country’s 34 provinces. Media reports indicate schools have re-opened in the
provinces of Zabul, Sar-e-Pul, Balkh, Samangan, Jawzjan, and Kunduz. No timeframe has been announced for the
complete re-opening. Sources told FIDH they had been told that secondary
schools for girls may be open in an additional two provinces, bringing the
total to eight, but FIDH has not been able to verify this. During the Taliban’s
previous period in power, from 1996-2001, the “temporary” ban on girls’
education lasted in fact five years – the entirety of the Taliban rule. In another demonstration of its lack of
commitment to ensuring girls are able to further their education, the Taliban
prevented girls in grades seven to 12 from taking their annual exams in Herat. This will impact all girls, but in particular
those in their last year of school preparing for the national university
entrance exam. On 6 November 2021, secondary schools in Herat re-opened, in
part due to teenager Sotooda Forotan’s impassioned speech to the Taliban, but
remained open for only 10 days before being shut again. Prior to the Taliban takeover, Nazanin, a
16-year-old student attending a public school in Kabul, aspired to study
medicine. “After Kabul fell to the Taliban, the Taliban closed schools for all
girls, and for a period of three months, we haven’t had the right to go to
school. I suffer a lot – thinking about the unknown future I find myself in.
And I keep thinking – if only I was like a school girl in another country;
without fear I would go to school and study, and I would be able to realise my
aspirations. But today I see only an unknown future ahead of me.” Sosan,
a 15-year-old student attending a private school in Kabul, told FIDH: “I had
big dreams; I saw my future: having finished studies in journalism, I would
serve society and my country. But, regrettably, these wishes died when Kabul
fell to the Taliban. Because when the Taliban came to Kabul, they closed school
doors in the faces of girls. All these dreams have gone up in smoke.” In
addition to the ban on girls’ schools from grades seven to 12, female students
have been unable to attend classes regularly at universities and vocational
schools because the Taliban has implemented gender segregated classrooms and a
strict dress-code.
Human rights defenders remain
at high risk of reprisals Human rights defenders remain at high risk of
reprisals from the Taliban. After consulting with 100 human rights defenders
across Afghanistan, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Mary Lawlor
said defenders remain to various abuses, including beatings, arrests, enforced
disappearances, and killings. A report jointly published in September by
FIDH, OMCT, and Amnesty International concluded that under Taliban rule, human
rights defenders are at more risk than ever. The report also noted that some NGOs had their
accounts frozen by the Taliban. FIDH
received numerous reports of human rights defenders and their families
receiving threatening phone calls, warning letters, and searches of their
offices. The Afghanistan Human
Rights Defenders Committee (AHRDC) estimated that a majority of 830 prominent
human rights defenders included in a list prepared by the AHRDC members are at
“high risk” or “extremely high risk.” Most of the defenders with whom the AHRDC was
in contact said they were afraid to continue their work for fear of being targeted
by the Taliban. Tabesh, a female associate professor at Kabul University
and women’s rights activist, told FIDH: “Since the Taliban takeover, my family
and I moved to a new place leaving our home, job, and everything behind for
safety reasons. Except some close friends, we have not shared our address with
anyone to avoid being chased by the Taliban. My husband is very careful not to
come across any acquaintances while he’s out for shopping to maintain our
security of hideout. When my friends and I work on advocacy or protest
programs, our entire discussion and planning is done through online platforms.”
While much of the evacuation
efforts following the Taliban takeover focused on safe passage for US and NATO
“allies,” it is unclear how many human rights defenders - including those who
had worked with NGOs or international organizations funded by NATO member
states - were able to leave the country. FIDH’s contacts with human rights
defenders in Afghanistan suggest many remain at risk and in need of urgent
protection in the form of safe passage out of the country. While human rights
defenders have actively sought refuge and looked for opportunities to leave the
country, no safe exit route is available to them. The lack of adequate
documents, the impossibility of obtaining visas for many countries from Kabul,
and the shortage of flights out of the country, among other issues, have made
it extremely difficult for most of them to leave the country, leaving many
defenders in hiding.
Right to freedom of peaceful
assembly violently repressed The violent repression of the right to freedom
of peaceful assembly shows the Taliban is deeply intolerant of citizens’
critique and dissent. Despite the Taliban’s track record of violent repression
of dissent, many Afghans have attempted to express their discontent with the
Taliban’s policies since its seizure of power. In August and September,
mostly women, in some instances joined by men, protested against Taliban’s
violations of women’s rights in Faizabad, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Herat. During
a peaceful protest on 18 August in Jalalabad, the Taliban violently suppressed peaceful
demonstrations by opening fire on protesters and violently beating them. At least three individuals were killed. Three people were also killed and others
injured at a protest in Herat, while protesters were violently beaten and detained
in Kabul, and protests were dispersed in
Faizabad. In Kabul, women
protested under a variety of slogans calling for women’s inclusion in decision
making in government, and the rights to education and to work. Amid the
country’s worsening economic situation, during a 21 October protest in Kabul,
women held signs saying ‘Work, Bread, and Education.’ Ghezal, a women’s rights activist who
participated in a protest in the capital after the Taliban takeover, told FIDH:
“Our message was to demand women’s access to their right to education and work,
the reopening of girls’ schools, and ensuring social justice for all. We
advocated with a group of women, and all of us were involved in organizing it.
The Taliban did not allow us to continue to protest and reacted violently. They
even pointed their guns at protesters and cursed at the women, including
myself.” In September, Tabesh, a female associate professor at Kabul
University and women’s rights activist, organized and participated in three protests
in Kabul and helped organize another protest in Badakhshan. She recounted: “Two
men who had joined our protest [in Kabul] without prior coordination were
arrested by the Taliban and tortured until the next day. Their last resort in
response to our protest was dropping tear gas and beating the protesters by
batons. The protest in Badakhshan was organized by me and a number of friends.
The Taliban chased down some of the female protesters and tortured them. Two
women were injured during the protest, and some were warned that if they were
to be seen in similar protests again, they would be hunted down and killed
without anyone knowing.” Forouzan Safi, a woman’s rights activist
economics lecturer, participated in a protest in Mazar-i-Sharif, her home city,
in September. In October, her body, along with the bodies of three other women,
were found in a house in her home city. Reports suggest she was lured to the
house under the pretenses of evacuation. While the Taliban claims to have
captured the perpetrators, no details have been released. The Taliban also suppressed protests by
shutting down telecommunications in areas where protesters gathered, confiscating
the equipment of journalists covering protests, and arresting, detaining and
beating journalists who covered protests. There are also concerns that the
Taliban’s identification of protesters by recording personal information, such
as names and telephone numbers, could facilitate further intimidation and
harassment of protesters. Protests have significantly quietened
following the Taliban’s violent suppression of protesters and media covering
the demonstrations. In September, the Taliban effectively banned protests by
announcing that such events would only be permitted with prior permission.
Journalists targeted, media
outlets shut Despite the Taliban’s statements that it would “respect
freedom of the press because media reporting will be useful to society and will
be able to help correct the leaders’ errors,” the Taliban’s treatment of the
media over the past 100 days has demonstrated the group’s almost complete
intolerance for freedom of opinion and expression. The Taliban has
attempted to silence media in Afghanistan through violent means and it has
severely restricted the media’s ability to report freely without fear.
According to a survey of 1,379 journalists from 28 provinces, more than 70% of
them reported having received threats. “The threat level is high – as with all
of Afghanistan,” Mustafa, a journalist who covered developments in Helmand,
Zabul, Kandahar and Uruzgan Provinces, told FIDH. “They [the Taliban] tell us
to only publish things ‘for the benefit of the country and the Islamic Emirate.
Don’t publish rubbish, songs, or anything that goes against sharia.’” In
some cases, the Taliban has subjected journalists to arbitrary detention and
torture, as well as confiscation of their equipment. For example, on 6
September, photojournalist Murtaza Samedi was detained after covering a protest
in Herat. On 7 September Wahid Ahmadi, a journalist for Tolo News was detained
by the Taliban and had his equipment confiscated. [58] On 7 September,
Etilaat-eRoz journalists Taqi Daryabi and Nematullah Naqdi were detained and
tortured by Taliban after covering a women’s protest in Kabul. Photos released by the two journalists showed
marks of the extensive beatings they had received at the hands of the Taliban.
[60] Nematullah Naqdi lost 40% of his eyesight in one eye, and suffered a
ruptured eardrum, which has impaired his hearing. The severe shock to the media ecosystem
caused by the Taliban’s seizure of power has also led to an unemployment crisis
that affected media workers in the country. In a survey published on 7 October
2021, the Afghanistan National Journalists Union (ANJU) found that at least 67%
of journalists had become unemployed. Further, according to analysis carried
out by Tolo News, in the month following the Taliban’s takeover 153 media
outlets across 20 provinces closed.
Recommendations As a
humanitarian crisis potentially graver than any other seen before looms in
Afghanistan, the time for action is now. FIDH calls on the European
Union, the UN Human Rights Council, and the UN Security Council to:
• Not provide political
recognition to the Taliban authorities.
• Press the Taliban to respect,
promote, and fulfil human rights, especially with respect to women’s and girls’
rights.
• Contribute to, and support,
efforts to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights
law, international humanitarian law, and other serious human rights violations,
including any gendered dimensions of such violations and abuses, by all parties
in Afghanistan, via the establishment of a UN-mandated independent
investigative mechanism.
• Contribute to efforts to bring
all those suspected of being responsible for crimes under international law to
justice in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts and without recourse to
the death penalty.
• Contribute to efforts to
collect and preserve evidence for future prosecutions for serious crimes under
international law, and make recommendations on necessary measures to end
impunity and ensure accountability for such crimes.
• Coordinate concrete actions to
protect the rights of the people of Afghanistan and to ensure their access to
justice, including reparations for victims and survivors, and to prevent
further atrocities.
• Press the Taliban to ensure
unhindered access to all parts of the country to independent human rights
monitors, and to reaffirm the standing invitation to all UN Special Procedures,
issued in August 2017, so that mandate holders whose requests for visits are
pending are able to do so immediately;
• Press the Taliban to co-operate
fully with the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
Afghanistan, who will be appointed in March 2022 by the UN Human Rights
Council. [63]
• Request that the Taliban
respect the country’s human rights obligations in line with Afghanistan’s
international legal obligations, including the CEDAW, CRC, ICCPR, and the
ICESCR.
• Ensure cooperation with the
Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in
investigating Rome Statute crimes committed in Afghanistan.
^ 100 days since the Taliban
retook Afghanistan and they continue to discriminate, beat and kill Women. They
continue to discriminate, beat and kill Homosexuals. They continue to
discriminate, beat and kill anyone that helped Western Governments or the Old
Afghan Government. They continue to discriminate, beat and kill anyone they
want to.
100 days and there are still
American Citizens abandoned by Biden inside Afghanistan.
100 days and there are still
thousands of SIV Afghans abandoned by Biden inside Afghanistan.
100 days and there are still
Western Citizens abandoned by their own Governments inside Afghanistan. ^
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