Witness 13 Audio Testimony

I am Azada, a protesting woman and the leader of a protest movement. I have a background of 28 years of teaching the children of my homeland. After the terrorist group, the Taliban, took over the country and Herat on August 15, 2021 , they implemented anti-human and misogynistic decrees against the women and girls of the country. They created inhumane impediments and deprivations for this capable segment of society, denying them their rights to education, work, and freedom—rights that are legitimate and human for me and every woman and girl living on this earth. To restore these rights and oppose the increasing restrictions of this mercenary regime, I took to the streets of Kabul to seek justice.

My participation in the protests was completely spontaneous, based on a sense of patriotism, responsibility, and service to my homeland, without support from any organization or institution. Through my advocacy, I wrote slogans and shouted them to the world, especially to the countries that outwardly support human rights but secretly support the Taliban. I became the stifled voice of thousands of women in my land. I shouted repeatedly that the Taliban are the same ignorant, mercenary, terrorist group as before, but this time they have been installed in power in a much more savage way. They are not advocates of religion but rather merchants of the holy religion of Islam, because such cruelty and terror against the women and girls of a country should not be permitted in an Islamic nation, except in ours.

The Taliban met our protests from day one with insults, humiliation, beatings, and the use of force and violence. But this violence did not make me retreat. Every time I faced the Taliban, the destruction of our homeland, the spilled blood of the martyrs, and the tears of the orphans and widows of our country—which had been inflicted upon us by the murderous, bloodthirsty group over 20 years—made me more determined than before to fight.

Every call from my female students, girls who had spent a lifetime in education, would make me tremble. Crying, they would say, ‘Dear teacher, what is our sin? What should we do? We cannot tolerate this oppression. What crime have we committed besides pursuing education and serving our country? Why have they buried us alive?’. I would encourage them to remain steadfast and resilient, but I would cry to myself and ask, ‘Why have we, women and girls, become the victims of the sinister policies of the world and the Taliban? Why, and for what rational reason, have we been condemned to systematic imprisonment?’. I wrote slogans against every Taliban decree and shouted them with all my being on the streets of Kabul: “Education, work, freedom, the path to prosperity,” “We, women, are awake and fed up with discrimination,” and “Justice, justice, we are tired of ignorance and captivity“.

During these events, the protestors were also met with the spraying of pepper spray and savage beatings. The terrorist Taliban did not stop there; they sent us verbal and written threats. We protestors simply changed our locations and continued our demonstrations. The Taliban spared no shameful act to discredit the protesting women. The negative propaganda against the protestors, the defaming of our sacred goals and objectives, and the portrayal of protestors as bad people in the minds of the public intensified so much that many protestors stopped participating due to pressure from their families. The relationships, engagements, and marriages of many were severed. We protestors were rejected by our families and society.

With this inhumane behavior and negative propaganda intended to suppress the protestors, the Taliban finally arrested and subjected protestors to inhumane and savage torture during the demonstrations. When they arrested my fellow combatants one after another, I was forced to leave Kabul. In the last minutes before I left Kabul with my family, armed Taliban raided my house and took all my and my family’s identification documents. We temporarily went into hiding, but the thought remained: if I leave, and others leave, then who will stand and fight? Haven’t we breathed the air of this country? Doesn’t this country have a right over us? Service and the fight against tyranny require sacrifice. I prepared for closed-door programs and did not lay down the banner of freedom.

The Taliban’s anti-human decrees reached over a hundred commands, yet no international organization or body questioned this group. The bans on education, work, freedom of movement, and beauty salon activities, the closure of amusement parks, the prohibition of women leaving home without a mahram, compulsory dress codes, the underage marriage of girls, forced migrations, and the killing of former military personnel were all acts of oppression that reached their peak. The nation, which had lost everything for education and employment, was now unemployed. The statistics on suicide among young women and girls rose terrifyingly.

The Taliban branded the protestors as rebels in the media, issued a fatwa for their killing, and sought to silence the voices of the protestors by any means necessary. I, as the head of the protest movement, was under pursuit. Finally, on August 20, 2023, the ruthless militias arrested me with my two young daughters and team members during a protest. I was tortured in their dreaded torture chambers in the worst ways. Due to their savage beating, my brain was damaged, and my neck was severely injured; my ears bled for a full month. After a while, we were released through the mediation of local elders, who made commitments on our behalf. But my daughters, family members, and I still suffer from the trauma and nightmares of those days. I was tortured and knew what this savage group would do to me. I was ready for anything to defend my rights, but why should my family have to suffer?.

I continued fighting for another two years until there was no space left for me to breathe. In the four years of the Taliban’s rule, I could not appear in public for anything other than protests. The fear and dread of my children being tortured compelled us to leave our homeland, my mother. I did not start protesting in order to leave. Even now that I have come abroad, I have no peace. As long as I live, my position is clear, and I will fight like a soldier in exile. I call on all relevant organizations and the organizers of this important session to bring the Taliban to justice for their heinous acts. Their place is not ruling a country; no, it is behind prison bars.