6. WOMEN AND GIRLS ARBITRARILY DETAINED FOR “MORAL CORRUPTION” AND FLEEING ABUSE
“There were women who were arrested from the market, from the rickshaws, from the coffee shops... All of the women were saying, ‘I don’t know why I was brought here.’” Staff member of Taliban-run detention centre174 According to four individuals who worked in Taliban-run detention centres for women and girls, the Taliban have arbitrarily arrested and, in at least two detention centres in Afghanistan, arbitrarily detained women and girls for infringements of the Taliban’s discriminatory policies. Those arrested have usually been charged with the vague and ambiguous “crime” of “moral corruption”. Amnesty International also interviewed two women who were arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Taliban on such charges. In addition to charges of “moral corruption”, the prison staff members and one former detainee indicated that some survivors of gender-based violence who were formerly living in the shelters have been arbitrarily detained in those same two detention centres. Such practices may be occurring in other detention centres across Afghanistan. The prison staff members an d the former detainees said that these women and girls detained on “moral corruption” charges or for fleeing abuse have been denied access to a lawyer and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment as well as inhuman conditions in detention.175
174 Interview, 2021-2022. 175 Interviews, 2021-2022.
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D E AT H I N S L O W M O T I O N : W O M E N A N D G I R L S U N D E R TA L I B A N R U L E
