- Since the Taliban gained power in Afghanistan last year, they have been cracking down on protestors.
- Women protesting their rule told Insider they are targeted by the Taliban — and then detained and tortured.
- "Unfortunately, they put you in a state of horror and fear," one protestor told Insider.
When the Taliban came to power last summer, Wahida Amiri couldn't sit quietly.
She, alongside other women, gathered and staged protests in Kabul and other cities — a move that would lead to her capture, interrogation, and subsequent fleeing from Afghanistan to neighboring Pakistan.
Amiri told Insider that women were fighting "to get our rights and bring justice back to our country."
In retaliation, the Taliban abducted and killed female protesters. Many demonstrations even turned violent, with Taliban fighters firing shots in the air or spraying tear gas. Women have also mysteriously disappeared.
Insider interviewed three female Afghan activists Wahida Amiri, Hoda Khamoosh, and PP, who asked Insider to conceal her real identity, citing fear of retribution. They were at the forefront of the movement against the Taliban and suffered the consequences of standing up for their rights.
Other women cooperated with the Taliban to turn them in
PP's last protest was in Kabul.
Just days later she was captured by the Taliban after someone from the group of women cooperated with them.
"In all these years, no man managed to defeat us in our path or find our whereabouts or cooperate with the Taliban. However, in the end, a woman — someone with the same gender — cooperated with them and gave us away," PP said.
She said she always feared that she could be abducted and killed, but never imagined the Taliban would enter her house.
"It was horrific, seriously horrific," she said. "I was convinced that I was going to get killed. When they entered our house, it was beyond my imagination."
PP said she started protesting because women in other provinces were being abducted, raped, tortured, and killed by the Taliban. The protests she participated in were meant to help free them, instead, the women who protested in Kabul were attacked.
She was taken to a detention center that had all male employees and no health center. She spent a month there, where she said women were chained, called whores, and tortured.
"They didn't shy away from physical and group torture. Unfortunately, they put you in a state of horror and fear," she said. "Nobody knows the fate of most of the women, most of them have been killed under the Taliban's torture. For example, Alia Azizi is still missing. She was one of the first women that was put in prison, and we still don't know her fate."
She was convinced she herself would die in Taliban custody, but eventually, they allowed her to go free with the guarantee from her family that she wouldn't protest. They also confiscated her passport and refused to allow her to leave Afghanistan.
"With the way they treated us, I didn't think we would ever be released because every day they used to tell us 'Sharia orders us to kill you. You women have stood against an Islamic emirate so you should be killed. You would be killed, and we are awaiting orders,'" she recalled. "I don't think we could imagine getting out of their captivity alive."
PP said while the physical torture is over, she's now anxious and constantly afraid.
"We were released from a small prison and put in a bigger prison. When a woman is not allowed to speak or move freely then you can only imagine," PP explained. "We are still under house arrest. Just like the birds, we move from house to house. From time to time we offer money to people so they could let us stay at their house."
She continued, "Imagine, we live in a constant horror where our families are constantly worried about the threat of being killed. And of course, the pain and the suffering of our people, which still remains constant."
Protesters were abducted and tortured
Amiri, who also protested in Kabul and several other cities told Insider the protests — regardless of the risks involved – have brought international attention to Afghan women's issues.
She shared several videos and photos with Insider of the times that she and other women went out to protest.
One video, seen below, shows an Afghan woman wearing a red coat and headscarf surrounded by at least a hundred others. She's seen speaking up against the Taliban's tyranny without ever naming the group.
Another time, a group of women began to burn burqas during a protest. All women present there including Amiri became targets of the Taliban, she said.
Amiri wasn't at that protest but she still went into hiding because she knew that the Taliban would be hunting down any and all-female protesters who had challenged their authority.
She spent days in hiding but, she was right.
Eventually, the Taliban stormed a safe house where she was living and then arrested her. She was detained and questioned for more than two weeks and was only released after her family agreed to confiscate her house and jail her brother if she protested again. Amiri has since fled to Pakistan but still worries she'd be captured and returned to Afghanistan.
"Fear is everywhere and being a refugee in such circumstances is difficult," she said.
Talks between women activists and the Taliban are ineffective
Activist Hoda Khamoosh was invited to a conference organized by the Norwegian government in January to talk to the Taliban.
"Our objective was to maintain the role of women in the society and not allow the Taliban to erase women like before. Also, so we could find a way to let them know that yes, previously you whopped women and forced to stay at home but now we are not afraid of your whip or your power. We are the women that are self-aware and wouldn't allow you to take away our rights," Khamoosh told Insider.
At the conference, she said she asked the international community why they weren't visiting and witnessing what was happening under the Taliban rule.
"When I spoke against them in Oslo, the same day they went and attacked my family, my husband, fortunately, wasn't home, but my father-in-law and mother-in-law was beaten up and they were forced to give guarantees that I wouldn't speak against them."
She decided not to return to Kabul and sought refuge in Oslo, where she's continued her activism and has been raising awareness about the current situation in Afghanistan. But she still feels scared and these days she conducts most of her meetings online to avoid physical threats.
She's also doubtful of the international community's efforts to keep women who speak up against the Taliban safe.
"We faced a lot of problems after our meetings with the UN — although there are plenty of qualified women who could have done the translations during our meetings, they had a man from ICI from Pakistan to do the translation," Khamoosh said.
She added that the translator got the contact information of everyone who spoke to the UN and all of those women had serious issues after they left.
International communities should be more proactive in stopping the Taliban
All three women who spoke to Insider said while they've been accused of fighting against Islam and religious virtues, their goals are to reinstate women's rights, including work and education, in the country. And despite the personal risks and harms, they all told Insider the women-led protests benefited their cause.
"We could let the world hear women's voices in Afghanistan and made them notice that women of Afghanistan are not having any sorts of rights," Amiri said.
Women's activism in the country has completely changed their lives ever since the Taliban took over, facing intimidation, threats, and violence. They've had to stop public displays of disapproval and two of them even had to flee Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, despite initially saying their new rise to power would be less repressive to women, the Taliban has turned back the clock on women's rights in Afghanistan. They've since ordered all women in Afghanistan to cover their faces, and banned girls from secondary school.
At one point, a Taliban official even joked about keeping "naughty women" at home.
As a result, none of the women believe talks with the Taliban will lead to any change.
"The Taliban were imposed on people because the international community was convinced that once they take power, they will share power and the same way they could be ousted as well," Khamoosh said.
She added that foreign countries and international groups could do more than hold diplomatic talks.
"If the international community wants to help alleviate poverty and provide work for people so they don't die of hunger, work with the relevant local organizations that are there instead of talking to the Taliban," Khamoosh said.