Witness 7 Audio Testimony

“I was a woman human rights activist in the central provinces of Afghanistan. After the fall of the republic system, I was pregnant. About two months after the collapse, I was forced to go to the relevant university to process my academic documents. My health was poor due to my pregnancy. Still, I was told I had to go see one of the Mullahs who had just been appointed by the Ministry of Higher Education.

When I went to him and offered a greeting, he didn’t even reply to my سلام (greeting). He said in a contemptuous tone, ‘What kind of state are you in? Your leg is showing!’. My feet were swollen due to my pregnancy, and I had been forced to wear slightly open and larger shoes. I told him, ‘Can’t you see my condition? I am pregnant… Don’t you have a mother to understand my situation? I am feeling extremely hot and unwell. I spoke in a tearful, helpless voice. But in response, he used very vulgar and humiliating words, saying, ‘You women committed prostitution for twenty years, and now you want to continue those things? The Islamic Emirate has arrived.

After that encounter, I didn’t dare to leave the house even once more. That interaction darkened my view of the future forever. I realized that in this situation, no one would understand the condition of a pregnant woman. I was confined to my home until my child was born. Even after the birth, her health was abnormal for forty days. Doctors said that the severe psychological pressure I experienced during my pregnancy had most likely affected the fetus. Now that my child is four years old, her psychological state and temperament are unfortunately still not normal. She is often depressed, doesn’t interact with other children, and is withdrawn. I cannot afford her treatment costs , but I truly believe that the main reason for all my child’s physical and psychological problems are the same pressures, fears, and cruel treatments I experienced after the Taliban came.

One day after my daughter was born, my husband and I took her to the hospital. Her health was poor, and she had an IV connected to her arm. On the way home, we encountered a checkpoint run by the Vice and Virtue forces. I was sitting in the front seat of the car and wearing a prayer shawl (chadar namaz). The Taliban did not speak directly to me , but they sent two women who were employed alongside them toward me. Those two women told me, ‘Get out of the front seat and go sit in the back‘. I told them, ‘My daughter is sick; she has an IV in her arm, and my husband is sitting in the front to help me. I cannot go to the back seat’. However, those two women, speaking with an imperative tone and disregarding our situation, forced me to move to the back. They acted as if the front seat was only for men, and women had no right to sit there. This behavior was extremely distressing because not only did they ignore my sick child’s condition, but they forced me to obey their orders with humiliation and a lack of understanding.

My other experience was while I was employed by an international organization , and our job was to train female teachers in remote villages. I always had to travel with a male guardian (mahram). One day, my mahram was at the market and told me to go to the office, and he would join me there, and then we would travel to the work site. Our office route passed in front of the Taliban intelligence directorate.

Suddenly, two Taliban approached me and touched my buttock. I immediately reacted, hitting them with my handbag and pushing them away. I yelled at them that they had no honor (namus). They spoke to each other in Pashto, saying, ‘These are Hazara; Hazara are permissible (halal)’—as if Hazara women were lawful or permissible for them. When I saw these words and actions, I was terrified and severely distressed. I immediately called my husband and told him what had happened. I hoped that if I took the complaint to the intelligence directorate, they would follow up on the case. I told the Taliban, ‘Let’s go to the intelligence directorate,’ and my husband joined me on the way to the directorate. But on the way, I realized how difficult it is to be a woman in this society. I thought to myself that if I went to complain, it was likely that not only would they fail to address it, but I myself would be blamed.”