Afghan women denounce the repression of the Taliban regime before a people’s court

Far from daily fear, the voices of Afghan women broke the silence imposed by the Taliban regime to recount the brutal repression that suffocates half of the country’s population, on the first day of sessions of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) this Wednesday in Madrid. Prosecutors and witnesses recounted the daily repression experienced by women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 before symbolic judges of the PPT, an international opinion tribunal competent to rule on any serious crime committed to the detriment of peoples and minorities. “This tribunal seeks to revive the humanity and dignity of women and girls who have been denied even the most basic things: education, health, and the right to exist,” explained prosecutor Orzala Namat, an Afghan academic residing in the United Kingdom, to EFE. “The world must understand that the absence of war does not mean peace,” she added to emphasize that the systematic persecution of women in Afghanistan “has no basis in religion or culture, but in a method of dehumanization.”

Direct Testimonials

The court heard direct testimonies from women who managed to escape the country after being imprisoned and tortured for protesting against the ban on studying or working. One of them, identified as W22, recounted how she was kidnapped along with her family after participating in a peaceful demonstration. “They applied electric shocks to me inside the vehicle. They told me that my life didn’t belong to me. They tortured my family because of my protests,” he said. Your son, barely ten years old, was held as punishment. “I thought they were going to kill me. I tried to commit suicide. I still have headaches that no treatment has been able to cure,” he stated.

Another harrowing testimony was that of W21, a young activist who covered her face for safety. “In fifteen minutes I cannot recount four years of torture”, she began.

W21 participated in the first protests for women’s right to education after the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul. “They were shooting at us for demonstrating. They told us we were a disgrace to Islam,” he recalled. She was kidnapped by Taliban intelligence agents, beaten, and tortured to force her to sign a confession. “They told me to pray, that I was going to die. There was no food or water. Only beatings and threats to kill my family,” he recounted. The Taliban, as explained, control the phones and use their photos as a public warning, printing their faces to be pointed out or pursued. “Even in exile I continue to receive threats.” Diplomats, jurists, and NGO representatives who attended the session agreed on the need to recognize the Taliban’s repression as a crime of gender persecution. Namat concluded that this court “does not seek revenge or military intervention,” but rather “justice and memory.” “The world abandoned Afghanistan, but it cannot abandon its women,” she said. During the session, Afghan prosecutor Azadah Raz Mohammad warned that the Taliban regime has enacted more than 130 decrees specifically targeting women, consolidating a system she described as “gender apartheid.” He explained that these rules not only exclude women from education, work, and public life, but also seek to “erase their existence” from Afghan society. “Persecution is so documented and normalized by governments around the world that it has become invisible,” he denounced, adding that this court represents “an act of hope” and a way to preserve evidence for future international justice actions. The PPT, which was born in Bologna (Italy) in 1979 in the context of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples (1976), is made up of a network of experts and personalities recognized internationally, convened periodically to form the jury of each session.