2. METHODOLOGY

This report is based on research carried out between September 2021 and June 2022. Amnesty International delegates conducted research in Afghanistan from 4 to 20 March 2022. The remainder of the research was carried out through remote interviews.

In total, Amnesty International interviewed 90 Afghan women and 11 girls for this report. Their ages ranged from 14 to 74 years old. Amnesty International attempted to interview women and girls of diverse age, class, and ethnicity. Amnesty International also tried to reach women in rural settings as well as urban centres, and from as many provinces as possible.

For this research, Amnesty spoke to women and girls based in following provinces: Badakhshan, Badghis, Balkh, Bamiyan, Daikundi, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand, Herat, Kabul, Kunduz, Laghman, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Paktika, Panjshir, Sar-e Pul, Takhar, Uruzgan and Wardak.

In some cases, the woman or girl had recently fled the province where she was formerly based and was in a new location when she spoke with Amnesty International. Almost all of these women and girls were still in Afghanistan. The rest had fled to third countries since the Taliban’s takeover.

For interviews related to child, early and forced marriage and freedom of movement, Amnesty International spoke with three men and one boy who were witnesses to violations against women or girls or who were family members of survivors.

The majority of the interviews undertaken for this report were conducted with interpretation from Dari or Pashto to English. The remainder of the interviews were conducted in English, without interpretation.

In addition to the interviews described above, Amnesty International interviewed six current or former staff members of detention centres, four of whom work in detention centres for women and girls; eight staff members of national NGOs; 14 members of international NGOs or the UN; and 10 independent Afghan and international experts and journalists with expertise on women and girls in Afghanistan. Amnesty International also reviewed reports from UN agencies, international and national NGOs and the media.

Almost every woman and girl interviewed requested anonymity, out of concern for their own security or the security of their family members. As a result, in this report Amnesty International has changed all of their names. To preserve their anonymity, the precise dates and locations of the interviews are not specified, nor whether the interview was conducted remotely or in Afghanistan. Key identifying details such as the interviewee’s place of origin have also sometimes been omitted. The referenced age of interviewees is from the time of the interview. The names of prison staff members as well as several staff members of international and national NGOs have also been omitted at their request, in order to preserve their anonymity and ability to work in Afghanistan. In most cases, the dates of interviews with NGO staff, UN officials and other experts have been included.

Amnesty International informed interviewees about the nature and purpose of the research and about how the information would be used. Researchers obtained oral consent from each person prior to the interview. Each person interviewed was told they could end the interview at any time and could choose not to answer specific questions. No incentives were provided to interviewees in exchange for speaking.

For all relevant interviews, Amnesty International took precautions to try to avoid re-traumatizing the women and girls being interviewed. For children, face-to-face interviews were conducted in settings that were secure, private and familiar to the children and/or their guardians. Whenever possible, children were interviewed in the presence of a family member, caregiver, sibling, friend or other guardian.

On 1 July 2022, Amnesty International communicated the key findings detailed in this report in letters addressed to Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi and Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Abdul Wali. No response had been received as of 15 July 2022, when the report was finalized.