Taliban has reacted to the UN’s stance on violence against women and said that "democracies have the highest level of violence against women". Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban's foreign ministry spokesman, said that one in three women in the US experiences violence and is raped.
Balkhi has also claimed that "this is also true for other democratic governments".
The spokesperson of the Taliban's Foreign Ministry added that Islamic governments are obliged to take measures to protect women from a similar destiny.
The Taliban’s stance comes a day after the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced that Afghanistan is among the countries with the highest rate of violence against women.
UNAMA stressed that since last summer, many rights of Afghan women have been revoked or restricted.
After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the group has imposed severe restrictions on Afghan women.
Amnesty International called on Taliban to immediately halt hardline practices, like public floggings, as punishments meted out by the group’s court. It said that these punishments are just another step in the legalisation of inhuman practices by the Taliban’s justice system.
The watchdog group stressed that the group’s hardline practices expose the de-facto authorities’ complete disregard for international human rights law.
Three women and 11 men had been publicly flogged on Wednesday on the orders of a Taliban court on charges of theft and moral crimes in Logar province of Afghanistan.
“The public flogging of women and men is a cruel and shocking return to the hardline practices by the Taliban. It violates the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment under international law and should not be carried out under any circumstances,” said Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International’s South Asia Campaigner.
The rights organisation added that the Taliban continue to ignore widespread criticism as they flagrantly flout basic human rights principles.
Amnesty International called on the Taliban to establish a formal justice mechanism with fair trials and access to legal remedies. It also asked the international community to intensify its efforts to ensure the de-facto authorities in Afghanistan abolish all cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments.
On November 14, the Taliban’s supreme leader, had given an obligatory order for full implementation of sharia law in Afghanistan. Since then, the Taliban have carried out several public floggings on women and men accusing them of adultery, theft, same-sex sexual conduct or kidnapping, in different provinces in Afghanistan.
In an open letter to the United Nations, the family of Elaha Delawarzai, claimed that the team behind her evacuation to Pakistan had revealed her whereabouts to Taliban. According to the family, the Haqqani network kidnapped Delawarzai from Islamabad and returned her to Kabul.
The family of Delawarzai stressed that in her last message, the abducted women told them about the revelation of her whereabouts to the Taliban.
Delawarzai, a former medical student, recently claimed that she was raped and tortured by Qari Saeed Khosty, the former spokesman of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister.
In an open letter to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), the family of Delawarzai said that she had given an interview to a reporter from the Toronto Star on November 11 after which, she had gone missing.
In an interview with the Toronto Star, Delawarzai revealed that she had left Afghanistan and was wanted by the Taliban.
Delawarzai stressed that she was disappointed with every stakeholder. "The world is still rolling the red carpet under the feet of the Taliban, while many women are brutally tortured in Taliban prisons," Delawarzai insisted.
She also stressed that she was worried that the Taliban might harm her in the neighboring country.
According to Delawarzai's family, they had been informed by a source after November 11 that she had said in a call that "the Haqqani network knew her address in Pakistan". She said that she had been returned to Kabul and Qari Saeed Khosty has told her to submit to the Taliban court.
Khosty, a former spokesperson of the Taliban's Ministry of Interior, has been accused of using his position to forcibly marry Delawarzai and subjected her to sexual assault and violence.
After the revelation of Khosty’s sexual assaults by Delawarzai, the Taliban official accused Delawarzai of insulting sacred things.
In the open letter to UNAMA, Delawarzai's family said that as threats increased against her, Human First organisation, headed by Safi Raouf, evacuated her from Afghanistan.
The family said that Delawarzai had been living in a house rented by Rauf’s organisation until October 26, 2022.
The family added they found out on November 24, that someone mentioned Khosty on Twitter and wrote in Pashto, "your wife is with us".
Delawarzai's family added that the photo posted on Twitter was the same picture which the driver of the Human First team had taken from Delawarzai and sent to Rauf on the day they had evacuated her to Pakistan.
In the letter, it has been stated that only the driver and Rauf had copies of that photo.
Delawarzai’s family said that Raouf denied being the only one who had access to that photo and said that he had shared the photo with the United Nations.
Delawarzai's family has rejected the claim that she was arrested by the Pakistani police and returned to Afghanistan, saying that they are certain that she was kidnapped by the Haqqani network.
The family stated that they are not aware of Delawarzai’s current situation or if she is alive and asked UNAMA and human rights organisations to intervene with the issue.
Hugo Shorter, the Chargé d'Affaires of the UK Mission in Afghanistan, said that he is shocked to see public floggings, and the restrictions imposed on girls and women, including access to parks and education in Afghanistan.
Shorter added that the Taliban’s discrimination undermines human rights and blocks the way to economic recovery in the country.
Afghanistan International reported in the past week that the Taliban had flogged several men and women in a mosque in Taleqan city of Takhar Province.
The Supreme Court of the Taliban published a statement confirming the report of Afghanistan International and said that it had flogged 10 men and nine women in Taleqan city.
Later, the Taliban officials in Logar province also announced that they had publicly flogged 12 people on various charges.
Sources told Afghanistan International that at least nine civilians have been killed and two others have been injured in a Taliban attack in Sewak Shibar area of Daikundi province. As per sources, Taliban members attacked the area on Thursday and targeted residential houses.
Sources said that all the casualties have been inflicted on members of two families in the area.
According to the sources, in the attack, nine people, including Amanullah Mali and Ibrahim Yaqoobi from the same family; Sher Mohammad Jafari, Mohammad Amir Jafari, and Mohammad Alam Jafari, three brothers from another family have been killed.
Mohammad, Enayat, and Mehdi are the children of Mohammad Alam Jafari, Sher Mohammad Jafari and Amir Mohammad Jafari who too died in the attack.
Mohammad Alam Jafari's wife is also among the dead members of the family.
A woman named Morwarid Khanum, and Mohammad Amir Jafari, have been injured in this attack.
In addition to killing civilians, the Taliban have arrested six people, including Ehsan, Rahman, Bashir, Mahmoud, Younus, and Mohammad Rezaei.
Local sources said that the reason for this deadly attack is still not clear. According to them, the Taliban waged the operation and killed these civilians with the cooperation of the local Taliban members.
Local sources said that around 200 Taliban intelligence forces had been involved in the attack.
A day after this deadly attack, the Taliban have not yet reacted to the media reports.
The sources said that after the attack, the Taliban shut down movements in the area.
Sources said that the Taliban delivered the dead bodies through the local elders of the region and the bodies are supposed to be buried on Friday.
According to sources, the Taliban have attacked residential houses with the cooperation of several local Taliban led by Mohammad Ali Sadaqat.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has urged Taliban to take immediate steps to end violence against women and promote women’s rights in order to establish a meaningful and sustainable peace.
With the world marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a 16-Day global activism against gender-based violence has been started.
“The fundamental rights of Afghan women need to be protected and concrete steps need to be taken for an enabling environment which is free from all forms of violence,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan. “Protecting the rights of women is a crucial factor for stability, prosperity and any lasting peace in Afghanistan” said Otunbayeva, who is also head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
“Each day we continue to see the normalization of violence against women and girls, in their homes, places where they are allowed to work, online, and in public spaces. We need to renew our efforts to invest in both the protection and empowerment of women and girls in Afghanistan,” said Alison Davidian, UN Women’s Representative in Afghanistan.
Since the summer of 2021, women in Afghanistan have had many of their most fundamental rights restricted or rescinded in a country that has one of the highest rates of violence against women globally. The situation is exacerbated by a dire humanitarian and economic crisis, and the restrictions on women’s fundamental rights, including the freedom to move, work, seek education, and participate in public life.
Women and girls are experiencing the most significant and rapid roll-back in enjoyment of their rights across the board in decades. Women under the Taliban are currently facing oppression in their day-today life with restrictions on movement, dress, no access to education and rolling back of their achievements over the past 20 years. Women have faced restrictions on employment, community presence, and political activities. After entering Kabul, the Taliban abolished the Ministry of Women Affairs and dedicated the ministry’s headquarters to the newly-established Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
In fact, a plan for the separation of men and women socially has been implemented by the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of the Taliban at universities, restaurants, parks and gymnasiums. The working women of Afghanistan have lost their jobs in most cases too and no women are involved in the policing-making circles of the country.
Human rights organizations have said that the Taliban are practicing "gender apartheid" against Afghan women. In 2021, soon after the fall of Kabul, groups of women activists came to the streets and held a demonstration for women’s rights. However, then too, the Taliban had suppressed the demonstrators in Kabul and other provinces. They continue to detain women activists, and even stop media outlets from covering the protests. The Taliban have also subjected women to increasing violence since they took power. Sometimes as a way of punishing their family members.