Men styling themselves God’s soldiers are using sexual violence on captive women to inflict punishment not just on individuals but to intimidate all Afghan women from any role in society.

The accounts of women violated and raped by Taliban members while in custody shared by the survivors with Afghanistan International paint a grim picture of life under their rule.

Their stories highlight how sexual violence has been systematically deployed as a weapon to humiliate and marginalise women in the theocratic, male-dominated country.

Survivors who shared their experiences for this report played active roles in society whether as teachers, medical staff, students, civil society activists or models.

All believe they were targeted for participating in public life.

At least 10 women in separate interviews told Afghanistan International they were subjected to sexual assault or harassment by members of the Taliban during detention.

Of these, eight said they were raped and the two others said that Taliban members photographed their naked bodies during interrogations that amounted to torture.

"In the past, despite existing challenges, there was a lawful government,” Ahmad Zia Saraj, the ex-chief of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, told Afghanistan International.

“At that time, there was considerable pressure to ensure that prisoners were not tortured or mistreated,” he said, adding that cameras installed by their authorities to deter potential abuses were now being deployed to film and blackmail female detainees.

 “(The Taliban) adhere to no laws or principles, and I believe there may be hundreds of other incidents that no one knows about."

Sweeping the US-backed Afghan government from power in 2021, the Taliban swiftly barred girls from schools and women from employment. But their use of sexual violence against the women of the country has received less attention.

The stigma the attacks brings to their victims and fear of bearing rapists’ children is an inevitable coda to their ordeal in custody, a gynecologist at a Kabul hospital told Afghanistan International.

"Many women, especially young girls, after being sexually assaulted, instead of focusing on the physical pain caused by torture, fear pregnancy and the possibility of being impregnated by the Taliban," the doctor said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Two women said that after being assaulted their husbands divorced them. Another woman said she is still trying to convince her husband to understand that she was a victim.

Among the nearly 20 victims of sexual assault and harassment at the hands of the Taliban interviewed by Afghanistan International, 10 agreed to have their stories published. The others declined due to security concerns, joining countless others whose suffering remains private.

 

‘Family Honor’ and a Culture of Impunity

In traditional Afghan society, cultural taboos preclude most discussion of sexual assault, deepening the isolation and trauma of survivors while perpetuating a culture of impunity.

Fear of retaliation and the desire to preserve so-called family honor enforces silence. Survivors routinely face rejection by both their families and society, with victims of assault and rape frequently blamed rather than supported.

Some victims shared that they have been separated from their spouses or rejected by their families, with the isolation only deepening their trauma.

“Rape not only causes physical harm but also leads to the psychological collapse of many Afghan women. The harm is so profound that, initially, many girls contemplate suicide,” Batool Haidari, a psychiatrist specializing in treating psychological trauma from sexual assault, told Afghanistan International.

“They spend more time in the shower or toilet cleaning their bodies …  and sometimes develop a strong sense of self-loathing,” Haidari added. “They feel humiliated and dominated by men.”

In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where there is no independent judiciary, victims are left with no viable means to file complaints, seek justice or demand redress of their rulers.

Rapists and torturers are left to act free from any fear of legal consequences for their crimes.

When Zuleikha - not her real name - regained consciousness, it was midnight. She was alone in a dark room, bleeding heavily.

The last thing she remembered was being struck on the head with the butt of a rifle and thrown into a car with tinted windows by masked gunmen on her way home from work.

Zuleikha, 22, worked in the advertising department for medical products at hospitals and obstetrics clinics in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and had worked in the medical field since high school.

However, following the armed takeover of the Taliban in 2021, she was repeatedly threatened by its members to stay home.

“They would say, ‘Why aren’t your father and brother working so you don’t have to go out?’” Zuleikha recalls. Taliban vehicles often followed her on her way home from work, she said.

“When the Taliban were following me, I was terrified, but I didn’t tell my family so they wouldn’t worry or stop me from going to work.”

On Sept. 15, 2024 as she left home for work like on any other day, the car carrying her Taliban abductors pulled up beside her and changed her life forever.

“When I regained consciousness, I was in an unfamiliar room, alone and bleeding heavily,” Zuleikha said.

With horror, she realized she had been raped.

Two men eventually entered the room. When she asked why they had brought her there, they replied, “’You whores have ruined the country.’” “I repeatedly begged the guards for sanitary pads, but they ignored me,” she says.

“At one point, they gave me pills that made me faint. I don’t know what happened to me during that time.”

She remembers being taken to another room multiple times, where she was whipped on her back, thighs, and legs and gang-raped. The Taliban filmed their assault and threatened her: “If you continue this, we will broadcast the film and ruin your reputation.”

“At that moment, I wanted to die of shame. Every time I screamed, they called me a whore and cursed me,” she says.

During the interrogation, the man questioned why she hadn’t observed the Taliban’s required hijab. He then pulled out a knife, cut her hair, and handed it to her. Zuleikha later sent photos of her hair which had been cut off to Afghanistan International.

After four days, Zuleikha was taken to a room where an elderly man was waiting. “He made me sign papers and warned me never to work again and to observe the Islamic hijab,” she says.

Taliban gunmen drove her away and abandoned her in a remote area.

“They threw me in a field full of grass. I couldn’t walk. I don’t know how long I walked before I reached a road. It was deserted, with no cars passing. Eventually, a taxi stopped. I asked the driver for his phone and called my father.”

Nearly four months after the incident, Zuleikha is still grappling with the psychological aftermath of the rape. She says that she has struggled with suicidal thoughts and once attempted to take her life by overdosing on medication.

The suicide attempt left her with facial palsy, and medical records she shared with Afghanistan International show she has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. She now copes with her trauma by taking prescribed antidepressants, antiviral sedatives and steroids.

Sediqa - not her real name - a 46-year-old former employee of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs dissolved in 2021, still trembles when she talks about the sexual violence she endured in a Taliban prison.

"Right now, my hands are shaking like someone who's been put in a refrigerator. Imagine how I felt at that moment," she says.

On the morning of August 12, 2023, the Taliban raided Sediqa’s home in Kabul. Covering her face with a black cloth, they handcuffed her and took her to the Kabul Intelligence Directorate.

That day, several women’s protest groups had planned to hold a demonstration in front of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in Kabul marking the second anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover.

Sediqa says that the Taliban forced her to contact the protest groups and convince them to cancel the demonstration, threatening to kill her if it went ahead.

Subjected to physical assault during her interrogation which broke her nose, the Taliban repeatedly asked her which foreign country was funding her activities and which government she was serving. She shared pictures of her battered face with Afghanistan International.

Sediqa replied she was protesting for her rights and was not taking orders from abroad.

Then, she says, one of her young captors removed her clothes. He was no older than her own son, she thought to herself.

While Sediqa declined to provide further details about the sexual violence, she emphasized that her experience shows the Taliban deliberately seeks to humiliate women who play a role in public life.

In a taunt she says was aimed at intimidating her, the Taliban members warned her: “If you continue your activities, we will release the video in public." Her suffering was not yet at an end.

She recalls that the Taliban members repeatedly visited her home day and night to ensure she was there. During one of the visits, a Taliban member slashed open her neck with an AK-47 bayonet, spattering her in blood.