Tribunal Hears Harrowing Testimonies From Afghan Women On Taliban Oppression
(ANALYSIS) On Oct. 8-10, the People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan, part of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT), an international opinion tribunal competent to rule on any serious crime committed to the detriment of peoples and communities, held public hearings in Madrid.
The tribunal is an initiative to add to the existing pathways to hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes and demand justice, raise the alarm about the normalization of the Taliban’s oppression of women and give women and girls their chance to be heard around the world.
The hearings provided a platform to Afghan women who bravely recounted their experiences and explained the impact of the Taliban-imposed restrictions on their lives.
They spoke of the restrictions imposed on women and girls in their access to education and employment, among others. One witness told the Tribunal: “Before 2021, I had a job and could go outside. Now I have no job, can’t go out. My spirit is broken. Everything in my life has multiplied by zero. God never said to confine people to their homes. Why do you put women in solitary confinement?”
Witnesses described how the Taliban were violently repressing women’s protests.
This included hitting women protesters with the back of AK-47s, using pepper spray, and beating up those who were present to film these protests. Women were often detained in unofficial detention centers, without a warrant.
In custody, they have experienced brutal beatings, torture, and have been interrogated until they agreed to forced confessions. A witness released from Taliban custody testified: “I was released from the prison cell of the Taliban, but I was confined to another prison cell: that of my home.”
You can read Ewelina Ochab’s post at Forbes.com.
Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab is a human rights advocate, author and co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. She’s authored the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of genocide and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world. She is on X @EwelinaUO.