Witness 3 Audio Testimony

“I am Mehtab Iftikhar, an Afghan girl who went through hell in Afghanistan. We faced domestic violence and were forced into marriage at the age of ten. Unfortunately, the cruelty and crimes against me intensified with the arrival of the Taliban. My husband used to tell me, ‘I will murder you, I will kill you. Where are your human rights? Where will you raise your voice? I’ll kill you. I’ll tell the Taliban you were a bad woman, and they will give me a reward. If he tells the Taliban she was a bad woman who did bad things, the Taliban will say, “You are honorable,” and reward him.’

The cruelty and crime against me increased daily, along with the family violence. I was forced to write petitions to the police districts and the court. When I took my petitions to the Taliban, they tore them up, beat me, and dragged me out of the district office, telling me, ‘You are a bad woman, endure it. He is your husband, he is your master, he has the right to beat you. You are a bad woman. A woman who comes to the district office to complain, we should put a bullet in her head (pointing to her head) and eliminate her. You are a bad woman.’ The Taliban tore up my petition several times and dragged me out of the district office. They told me, ‘Go, the district office is not for women.’ They humiliated me, called me a bad woman, verbally abused me, and sent me back to the house where my hell was and where they oppressed me every day.

Finally, I had no choice but to take my daughter and son and run away. Unfortunately, the Taliban intelligence agents captured us again, beat us. Taliban rangers surrounded us , the Taliban surrounded us with their guns. They beat me and my two children. They wouldn’t give us a single drop of water; my throat was dry from thirst. When they arrested us, I didn’t even know the Pashto language to defend my rights. My husband’s family came, and in front of the Taliban, they hit my head and the heads of my two children with stones , and the Taliban said nothing. Where is the law? Where can Afghan women raise their voices?

The Taliban put us in their ranger vehicle. We thought they were taking us to a place with a court, a judge, or a lawyer. Instead, they took us to a dark and terrifying house where there was only a whip, a Taliban, and a gun. They committed crimes and inflicted cruelty. They humiliated and beat me, and oppressed me in front of my children. I couldn’t defend my rights because I didn’t speak Pashto. The Taliban told me, ‘Bibi Aisha was nine years old; you were ten. He did a good thing by doing this to you.’ They humiliated us, called us bad women, beat us, and handed us and my children back to them, sending us back to hell.

Afghan women have nowhere to raise their voices. Who says Afghanistan is secure? We saw hell with our own eyes. The Taliban are cruel; their government and rule only work for the benefit of men. They only torture, oppress, and humiliate women. When the Taliban returned me without my rights, beating and torturing me, sending me back to the place where I was to be oppressed, I couldn’t bear it anymore. I ran away again after a while.

The Taliban wouldn’t even allow me to travel. They said, ‘You are a woman alone. Where is your brother?’ I told them my brother was killed in a suicide bombing, and my father was killed in a suicide bombing. They asked, ‘Where is your uncle? Where is your grandfather? We won’t let a woman travel alone.’ I finally fled to Kabul under a different identity, having no one.

Even traveling to Kabul, I didn’t have permission. The Taliban stopped the car five times, asking for my male guardian. Inside the car, I begged a family with a husband to say I was with them so the Taliban wouldn’t take me out of the car.

In Kabul, I joined the protesting women. We had nowhere to live. I participated in activism until the Taliban stopped us from the streets with tear gas and guns. We then raised our voices and protested inside houses. I joined the protesting women to demand my rights, the rights of Afghan women, and to get my children back.

In the house where we were advocating, a group of Taliban raided and attacked us. They attacked all the girls, beat us, and took our phones. They said, ‘You are raising your voices against Islam,’ even though we were only asking for our rights: the right to work, the right to education, the right to avoid forced marriage, and not to have our children taken from us. What crime had we committed that the Taliban tortured us, beat us, and took our phones? What crime had Afghan women committed that the Taliban inflicted all this cruelty and torture upon us? The moment the Taliban attacked us, we thought it was the last day of our lives. They beat us, took our phones, and humiliated us. They said, ‘You are women, women are the second sex. What we are doing to you is correct; it is stated in Islam.’ They arrested all the girls and beat us. Some girls fainted and fell on the ground. The Taliban showed no mercy. When we asked for permission to take a girl to the doctor, they said, ‘No, you are women. Women are deceitful.’ They beat us, tortured us, and insulted us. Even our colleagues and friends in Taliban prisons were raped, oppressed, and tortured.

Where is the law in Afghanistan? Who says there is security in Afghanistan? Women, who are a crucial half of society, are tortured and oppressed within the community and in their homes. Why is no one listening to the voice of Afghan women?

After the Taliban arrested, tortured, and imprisoned us, we couldn’t even raise our voices inside our houses anymore. Every moment we slept, we thought the Taliban would attack the house or the window. I had no sleep at night. I kept saying, ‘They will attack and kill us.’ Our mental and physical health deteriorated. We suffered psychological and physical torture, domestic violence, and violence from the Taliban. There is no place for women to raise their voices. Life became hell for us, and Afghan women are currently living in hell.

We had no place to live. The Taliban sent people after me to arrest me again. I lived in hiding and was homeless. The Taliban had told everyone not to rent a house to a single woman. No one would give me a house. Every real estate agent I went to told me, ‘You are a woman alone, without a man. We won’t give you a house. A woman alone must be a bad woman.’ Where can women go when they are oppressed by their husband’s family or their own family, and the government and society won’t give them a place? I had no place to live inside Afghanistan. My children were far from me.

I realized I had nowhere to live, no home, and no one would rent me a house. The Taliban were looking for me, and my husband’s family was looking for me. Everyone wanted to murder and kill me. The Taliban even told me when I wrote the petition, ‘You will be proven guilty. You are saying we married you off at ten years old. You will be stoned because you are saying you were not legally married but forced into it. If you prove you weren’t married, a woman without a legal marriage will be stoned. We will hang and execute you in front of everyone in the city. You are saying we married you off by force and your marriage isn’t valid, so you will be stoned.’ Everyone was after me, and I had nowhere to live.

Finally, with a heavy heart, I couldn’t reach my children. I had nowhere to go, so I headed toward Iran. I didn’t have permission to travel. I entered Iran with great difficulty and through very dangerous paths. I endured many hardships on the way to Iran because I was a woman without travel permission. I could have been arrested, killed, or murdered. When I got to Iran, I cried day and night because of the separation from my children. There is no law in Afghanistan; the law is in favor of men. Who am I, who hasn’t seen her children’s faces for three years? Who will listen to my voice? Where should I raise my voice? Where is our home? There is no place in Afghanistan for women to raise their voices.

Even in Iran, I joined the protesting women. I was going through immense difficulties in Iran, far from my children. I cried every day and every night. There was no place to raise my voice until, after some time, I found out my daughter was being forced into marriage. I spoke out strongly. I sought help from the media, saying, ‘Please make this a media story so the United Nations, European countries, and the whole world understand that there is no law in Afghanistan anymore’. I went to raise my voice for my daughter. We created a media story about my daughter’s forced marriage.

Now, who will listen to the voice of me, who hasn’t heard about the fate of her children for three years? Why have you abandoned the women of Afghanistan? Why aren’t you listening to the voices of Afghan women? Afghan women are currently living in hell under the rule of the Taliban.

In the end, I tell you that I witnessed cruelty and crime and became a victim myself in Afghanistan. Under the Taliban government, there is nowhere for women to go and raise their voices for their rights. Even if women are murdered inside their houses, there is nowhere to go. The whole world and the United Nations must hear the voices of Afghan women and not abandon them.

My final message is to my daughter and son: I love you very much, you always have a place in my heart, and I have never forgotten you, and I never will. I will make every final effort for your future so that you can have a better one.”