An Afghan human rights activist has been filmed being raped and tortured by gunmen in a Taliban prison, a shocking report has revealed.
There have been increasing reports of sexual violence against women and girls in Afghanistan since the Taliban retook the country in 2021.
However, the video is – seen by the Guardian – is seen as the first tangible evidence that 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 before being raped multiple times by two men.
She tries to cover her face with her hands as she is attacked, The Guardian reports, and one of the two men “pushes her hard” when she hesitates to follow their commands.
At one point in the video she is said to be saying, “You’ve been screwed by Americans all these years and now it’s our turn,” the newspaper reported.
A female Afghan rights activist was filmed being raped and tortured by gunmen in a Taliban prison, according to a shocking report. Pictured: An Afghan woman wearing a blue burqa is seen in Kabul on July 25, 2023 (file photo)
The woman seen in the video told reporters from The Guardian and Rukhshana Media (an Afghan women’s media organization) that she had been arrested for participating in protests against the Taliban regime and was in prison.
The video was filmed using the mobile phone of one of the two male attackers.
The woman, whose name has not been released, believes the recordings were made deliberately so she would be pressured to stop her criticism of the government.
In the video of the attack, she is seen naked and her face is visible, The Guardian reported, making her identifiable.
She has since left the country, but says the clip was sent to her after she fled, in an attempt to intimidate her after she criticized the Taliban.
The woman was told that the video would be shared widely on social media if she continued to protest against the Taliban, and the video was also sent to her family.
News of the video follows published stories of teenage girls and young women who say they have been arrested by the Taliban for wearing a “bad hijab” and have been victims of sexual violence and assault.
The Taliban have a strict interpretation of Islam, with women subject to laws the UN has called “gender apartheid.”
According to the Afghan news service Zan Times, there are ‘countless numbers of young women [are] arrested for what the Taliban saw as violations of their dress code.
In more than one case, the arrests and subsequent attacks have led to suicides, the publication said.
The body of one of the victims was found dead in a canal several weeks after her arrest.
In May 2022, nine months after they retook the country following the withdrawal of American and other Western troops, the Taliban ordered all Afghan women to cover themselves from head to toe, leaving only their eyes uncovered.
Reports of sexual violence against women and girls in Afghanistan have been increasing since the Taliban retook the country in 2021. Pictured: Taliban in 2022 marking the first anniversary of the Taliban takeover
Earlier this year, the UN called on the Taliban to end the 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 areas in police stations, given only one meal a day and some of them were exposed to physical violence, threats and intimidation.”
Meanwhile, Taliban authorities have been told that women must be part of public life, UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo said on Monday, defending a decision to sideline civil society groups from official talks in Doha.
Human rights groups have strongly criticised the UN’s controversial decision to exclude certain groups, including women’s rights activists, from the two-day summit on Afghanistan, saying it was the price for the Taliban government’s participation.
“The authorities will not be sitting at the table with Afghan civil society in this format, but they have heard very clearly that women and civil society must be involved in all aspects of public life,” DiCarlo said at a news conference in Doha.
The UN-led meeting began on Sunday and is the third summit in Qatar in just over a year, but the first to include the Taliban authorities, who seized power in Afghanistan for the second time in 2021.
The talks would discuss greater engagement in Afghanistan and a more coordinated approach to the country, including economic issues and drug control.
Now that the Taliban are back in power, the international community is struggling with how to approach Afghanistan’s new rulers.
The Taliban government in Kabul has not been officially recognized by any other government since it took power in 2021.
They refused an invitation to the Doha talks in February, demanding that they be the only Afghan representatives, excluding civil society groups. But their condition was accepted in the run-up to this latest round.
The Taliban has imposed a strict interpretation of Islam, with women subject to laws characterized by the UN as “gender apartheid”
DiCarlo, who chaired the UN talks in the Qatari capital, said she “hopes” there will be “new attention” to the Taliban government’s policies on women in public life, including girls’ education.
The UN and international delegations will have the opportunity to meet with civil society representatives, including women’s rights groups, tomorrow after the main meetings.
But Agnes Callamard, head of Amnesty International, said in a statement ahead of the talks that “giving in to the Taliban’s conditions to secure their participation in the talks risks legitimising their gender-based institutionalised system of oppression”.
The Taliban authorities have repeatedly stated that the rights of all citizens are guaranteed under Islamic law.