A female Afghan rights activist was filmed being gang-raped and tortured by armed men in a Taliban prison, according to a shocking report.
Reports of sexual violence being inflicted on women and girls in Afghanistan since the Taliban re-took the country in 2021 have been on the rise.
However, the video – seen by the Guardian – is thought to be the first tangible evidence that proves these crimes are being committed in the country.
The British publication said the video showed the young woman being told to take off her clothes. She is then seen being raped multiple times by two men.
She tries to cover her face with her hands as she is attacked, The Guardian said, and one of the two men ‘pushes her hard’ when she hesitates to follow their orders.
At one point in the video, she is told: ‘You’ve been f***ed by Americans all these years and now it’s our turn,’ the newspaper reports.
A female Afghan rights activist was filmed being gang-raped and tortured by armed men in a Taliban prison, according to a shocking report. Pictured: An Afghan women wearing a blue burqa is seen in Kabul on July 25, 2023 (file photo)
The woman seen in the video told reporters at The Guardian and Rukhshana Media (an Afghan women’s media organisation) that she was arrested for taking part in protests against the Taliban regime and held in a prison.
The video was filmed on the mobile phone of one of the two male attackers.
The woman, who has not been named, believes that it was deliberately recorded so that it could be used to shame her into ending her criticism of the government.
In the video of the attack, she can be seen standing naked and her face is visible, The Guardian said, making her identifiable.
She has since left the country, but said that the clip was sent to her after she fled in order to intimidate her after she criticised the Taliban.
The woman was told that the video would be shared widely on social media if she continued to protest the Taliban, and sent to her family.
The report on the video comes after the publication accounts from teenage girls and young woman who say they have been arrested by the Taliban for wearing ‘bad hijab’ and subjected to sexual violence and assault.
The Taliban has imposed a strict interpretation of Islam, with women subjected to laws characterised by the UN as ‘gender apartheid’.
According to Zan Times, the Afghan news service, ‘untold numbers of young women [are] arrested for what the Taliban deemed to be violations of their dress code’.
In more than one case, the arrests and subsequent assaults have led to suicides, the publication said.
The body of one victim was found dead in a canal weeks after she was arrested.
In May 2022, nine months after they re-took the country following the withdrawal of US and other Western troops, the Taliban decreed that all Afghan women must cover themselves from head to toe. Only their eyes can be uncovered.
Reports of sexual violence being inflicted on women and girls in Afghanistan since the Taliban re-took the country in 2021 have been on the rise. Pictured: Taliban are seen in 2022 celebrating the first anniversary of the Taliban takeover
Earlier this year, the UN called on the Taliban to end its crackdown on ‘bad hijab’.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said at the time: ‘Women and girls were reportedly held in overcrowded spaces in police stations, received only one meal a day, with some of them being subjected to physical violence, threats and intimidation.’
Meanwhile, Taliban authorities have been told that women must be included in public life, UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo said on Monday, as she defended a decision to sideline civil society groups at official talks in Doha.
Rights organisations have strongly criticised the controversial UN move to exclude the groups, including women’s rights activists, from the two-day summit on Afghanistan as the price for the Taliban government’s participation.
‘Authorities will not sit across the table with Afghan civil society in this format, but they have heard very clearly the need to include women and civil society in all aspects of public life’, DiCarlo told a Doha news conference.
The UN-hosted meeting began on Sunday and is the third such summit to be held in Qatar in a little over a year, but the first to include the Taliban authorities who seized power in Afghanistan for a second time in 2021.
The talks were due to discuss increasing engagement with Afghanistan and a more coordinated response to the country, including economic issues and counter-narcotics efforts.
In the aftermath of the Taliban’s return to power, the international community has wrestled with its approach to Afghanistan’s new rulers.
The Taliban government in Kabul has not been officially recognised by any other government since it took power in 2021.
They refused an invitation to Doha talks in February, insisting on being the only Afghan representatives, to the exclusion of civil society groups. But their condition was accepted in the build-up to this latest round.
The Taliban has imposed a strict interpretation of Islam, with women subjected to laws characterised by the UN as ‘gender apartheid’
DiCarlo, who chaired the UN talks in the Qatari capital, said she ‘hopes’ that ‘there’ll be new consideration’ of Taliban government policy on women in public life including girls’ education.
The UN and international delegations will have the chance to meet with civil society representatives, including women’s rights groups, tomorrow following the close of the main meetings.
But Amnesty International chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement ahead of the talks that ‘caving into the Taliban’s conditions to secure their participation in the talks would risk legitimising their gender-based institutionalised system of oppression’.
The Taliban authorities have repeatedly said the rights of all citizens are guaranteed under Islamic law.