Taliban-Era Data Show 6,660 Killings In 4 years

Of the total, 469 women are held in Kabul, the largest concentration in a single location, followed by Herat and Balkh. The data show the number of women detainees has increased 18.7 percent compared with last year.

The Taliban regained power on August 15, 2021. Amnesty International has reported that in the early days of Taliban rule, the group opened the doors of many prisons across the country. An investigation by Afghanistan International said Taliban decrees, largely moral and religious in nature, have significantly broadened the grounds for the detention and punishment of women.

Sharp Rise Compared With The Republic Era

According to data from World Prison Brief, during the republic period from 2001 to 2021, the number of women prisoners in Afghanistan never exceeded 1,000. In 2021, the final year of the republic order, there were 840 women prisoners.

Nearly four years after the Taliban’s return to power, the total prison population has reached 24,446, including 1,825 women held in women’s facilities.

Distribution By Province

Afghanistan has 71 prisons in total, 34 for women and 37 for men. Kabul alone has four detention facilities, with women held at Badam Bagh prison.

Kabul has the highest number of women prisoners, followed by Herat with 294, Balkh with 141, Nangarhar with 85 and Kandahar with 57.

Panjshir has the fewest women prisoners, with one, followed by Bamiyan with three, Maidan Wardak with six, and Logar and Zabul with seven each.

Women make up 7.5 percent of the total prison population. Observers say the figure is significant given Afghanistan’s social structure and restrictions that confine many women to their homes.

Taliban Directives & Women’s Imprisonment

The Taliban do not release case details of women prisoners, but the group’s Supreme Court regularly announces public floggings of women, most commonly for alleged extramarital relationships or “running away from home.” In many cases, women are sentenced to prison in addition to corporal punishment.

UN and human rights reports offer insight into the causes of women’s arrests. In an April 2025 report, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said the Taliban had granted broad powers to its Vice and Virtue apparatus, with the detention of women forming part of enforcement.

The Afghan human rights organisation Rawadari said the Taliban’s penal code has lowered the threshold for criminalising women. Under Article 34, a woman who repeatedly goes to her parental home and does not return to her husband’s house can be deemed a criminal. Family members who prevent her return can face up to three months in prison.

Rawadari said the provision disproportionately affects women fleeing domestic violence. Under the code, a husband is punished only if severe injury or visible bruising is proven before a judge, while other forms of physical, psychological or sexual violence are not explicitly prohibited.

Article 37 prescribes one year in prison for a woman accused of touching, shaking hands with or hugging a non-mahram man. Article 59 mandates two months in prison for boys and girls who dance, as well as for spectators.

The UN special rapporteur has warned that under the Promotion of Virtue law, enforcers are required to ensure women’s voices are not heard outside the home, exposing women to punishment even in semi-private spaces.

A report by The Guardian said that after women were barred from work and poverty deepened, some women in Kabul turned to begging, only to be arrested.

Amnesty International has also reported that during waves of arrests linked to dress codes and Taliban restrictions, women have faced degrading treatment, torture and, in some cases, sexual assault in detention.

Sociologist Ali Shiva told Afghanistan International that excluding women from work reduces household income and forces families into risky survival strategies, making women, particularly female heads of households, more vulnerable to criminalisation and exploitation.

The US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report and organised crime indices identify Afghanistan as a source country for trafficking and exploitation, with women and children among the most at-risk groups.

Overall, analysts say Taliban restrictions, particularly under the Vice and Virtue framework, have significantly expanded the scope for the arrest and imprisonment of women across Afghanistan.

In a statement, the ministry said the Taliban’s legal texts were drafted by committees of clerics across various ministries and institutions, based on the Quran, Sunnah and recognised Hanafi jurisprudence. It said none of the legislation contradicts Islamic Sharia or lacks a religious basis.

“Opposing these laws amounts to opposing Sharia,” the statement said, adding that objections “lack religious and scholarly basis, stem from ignorance or deliberate disregard, and constitute a crime under Sharia.” The ministry said those who object would be referred to judicial authorities for prosecution.

The warning comes amid growing criticism of the Taliban’s newly endorsed penal code. Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada recently approved the code, which consists of 10 chapters and 119 articles. The Taliban Supreme Court has said it will soon be published in the group’s official gazette.

Over the past four years, the Taliban have replaced Afghanistan’s previous constitution with a series of legal directives, including procedural guidelines, a statute and dozens of decrees, rulings and instructions issued by Akhundzada.

Afghan and international civil society activists have criticised the penal code, saying it legitimises practices such as slavery, domestic violence and a class-based social order.

Abdulhaq Hammad, an official at the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture, said the global order had collapsed and the world had fallen “into the hands of an economic warlord.” Without naming Trump directly, he said this figure intervenes wherever he sees personal interests and “destroys anything that stands in his way.”

Speaking Tuesday at a meeting in Kabul on the protection of cultural heritage, Hammad called on the international community to restrain what he described as this “warlord,” warning that otherwise global heritage sites could be at risk.

Hammad also accused the United States of targeting cultural heritage sites and mosques during the 20-year war in Afghanistan. He said hundreds of mosques were damaged during the conflict and that a number of Taliban members were killed inside mosques.

The Taliban official did not refer to the Bamiyan Buddha statues, historic monuments destroyed in 2001 during the group’s first period of rule, despite international protests and warnings at the time.

The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is widely regarded as one of the most prominent cases of cultural heritage destruction in Afghanistan and remains a controversial episode associated with the Taliban’s past rule.

The agency warned that the weather conditions are likely to deepen food insecurity and malnutrition.

In a forecast issued Tuesday, the FAO said heavy rainfall across large parts of Afghanistan is expected to continue for another week, while temperatures could drop sharply in some eastern and south-eastern provinces.

The warning comes as the World Food Programme has expressed concern over rising hunger during the winter months, saying child malnutrition typically peaks during this period.

Heavy rain and snowfall in recent days have caused both financial damage and casualties. According to figures from the Taliban’s disaster management authority, at least 61 people have been killed and more than 110 injured nationwide as a result of the recent snowfall.

Guterres said commitments to international law are being ignored with growing frequency.

Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting convened at the initiative of Somalia, the council’s rotating president, Guterres described the rule of law as the cornerstone of global peace and security and the “beating heart” of the UN Charter.

From Gaza to Ukraine and beyond, he said, the rule of law is being treated like an “à la carte menu”, with governments choosing to follow only the rules that suit them.

He warned that such violations set dangerous precedents, encourage impunity and undermine trust among states.

The UN chief urged countries to uphold their obligations to resolve disputes peacefully, protect human rights and respect the sovereign equality of states.

Guterres also stressed the importance of peaceful tools, including negotiation and mediation, to resolve conflicts, and said fair and independent judicial processes are needed to hold human rights violators accountable.

Without accountability, he said, lasting and just peace is not possible.