Afghan women detained by the Taliban for begging have spoken of rapes, beatings and forced labor.
After regaining power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Islamist group declared a war on women and girls, systematically violating all aspects of their rights.
Accounts from victims begging on the streets for money and food for their children have surfaced, detailing the abuse.
Women said they had been targeted by Taliban officials and detained under anti-begging laws passed this year.
While in prison, they claim they were subjected to sexual abuse, torture and forced labour, and witnessed children being beaten and abused, according to a report by Zan Times.
The women also witnessed children being beaten and abused.
A mother-of-three told the media outlet that was forced to move to Kabul and beg on the streets for food when her husband, who was in the national army, disappeared after the tumultuous takeover in the summer of 2021.
As the Taliban enforced their version of Islamic Sharia law, all women were banned from work.
The mother said she was unaware of the Taliban’s anti-begging laws until she was arrested while begging outside a bakery.
‘A Taliban car stopped near the bakery. They took my son by force and told me to get in the vehicle,’ she said.
She claims that she spent three days and nights in a Taliban jail. Initially, she was made to cook, clean and do laundry for the men working there.
Under the Taliban, women and girls were discriminated against in many ways just for being women and girls.
Some of the basic rights women and girls are being denied:
She was then told she had to be biometrically tested and fingerprinted and when she resisted she was beaten until she was unconscious. She says that she was then raped.
‘[Since I have been released] I have thought about ending my life several times, but my children hold me back,’ she says.
‘I wondered who would feed them if I weren’t here. Who can I complain to? No one will care, and I’m afraid they’d arrest me again if I spoke up. For my life and my children’s safety, I can’t say anything.’
She is one of thousands of women detained by the Taliban on charges of begging.
Another woman said she was begging in the capital with her four-year-old daughter in October 2023.
She was arrested and held in Badam Bagh Prison for 15 days where she said that she was raped and tortured
The victim also said that she and two other women were raped while in detention, and that the attacks caused her severe psychological trauma and depression.
According to Taliban officials, more than 50,000 people have already been ’rounded up’ for begging in Kabul alone since the law was introduced at the end of May.
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