The Norwegian Country of Origin Information Centre Land info, Country info response Afghanistan: the situation for Afghan women after Taliban takeover, 22 June 2022
"The shelters for abused women were closed down shortly after the takeover because they were considered to be Un-Islamic (Afghan source, conversation in Islamabad March 2022)."
UNHCR, UNHCR AFGHANISTAN 2021 MULTI SECTORIAL RAPID ASSESSMENTS ANALYSIS, 21 April 2022
“Some 84 per cent of IDPs indicated that they are renting shelters. IDP returnees (24%) are also renting accommodation in their place of origin upon return. Evidently, given that shelters may have been damaged by conflict, IDP returnees have needs pertaining to shelter rental. Qualitative findings from UNHCR’s CBPM have
found that the presence of IDPs who rent homes drives-up rental prices and contributes to community tensions. The rapid assessment data shows that 20 per cent of host community members are also renting shelters, creating a protection concern linked to the issue of rent, beyond just individual needs.”
US DOS, 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Afghanistan, 12 April 2022
“On September 19, Taliban gunmen entered a women’s shelter in Kabul by force, interrogated staff and residents for several hours and forced the head of the shelter to sign a letter promising not to allow the residents to leave without Taliban permission. The Taliban told the shelter operator they would return married shelter residents to their abusers and marry the single residents to Taliban soldiers.
Additionally, sources in September reported the Taliban were conducting “audits” of women’s shelters and women’s rights organizations, including those that provided protection services. These audits were enforced with intimidation through the brandishing of weapons and threats of violence. Equipment, including computers, paper files, and other documentation, was confiscated, and staff reported being aggressively questioned regarding their activities and possible association with the United States. Essential service providers either reduced or ceased their services altogether, citing fear of putting battered women, an already vulnerable demographic, at greater risk of
violence and harm.”
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2022 - Afghanistan, 28 February 2022
“The Taliban ended the limited formal protections from domestic violence offered by the republic. Shelters for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) were closed by the Taliban, with some residents reportedly being sent to prisons. Individuals who were convicted of GBV were among those released by the Taliban during their takeover.”
OHCHR, Afghanistan: Taliban attempting to steadily erase women and girls from public life – UN experts, 17 January 2022
“Various vital, and sometimes lifesaving, service providers supporting survivors of gender-based violence have shut
down for fear of retribution, as have many women’s shelters, with potentially fatal consequences for the many
victims in need of such services.” Other efforts aimed at dismantling systems designed to prevent and respond to gender-based violence have included discontinuing specialized courts and prosecution units responsible for enforcing the 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and preventing many women aid and social workers from being able to fully perform their jobs and assist other women and girls.
While these measures have affected women and girls of all spheres of life, the experts highlighted their particular concerns for women human rights defenders, women civil society activists and leaders, women judges and prosecutors, women in the security forces, women that were former government employees, and women journalists, all of whom have been considerably exposed to harassment, threats of violence and sometimes violence, and for whom civic space had been severely eroded. Many have been forced to leave the country as a
result.”
TOLO News, Amnesty Intl Calls to Reopen, Support Women's Shelters, 6 December 2021
“The "Taliban must allow" the reopening of shelters and other institutions for Afghan women in order to protect
the women from "further violence," a human rights watchdog said on Monday.
Amnesty International in a statement expressed concern over the situation of Afghan women. [...]
Before the fall of the former government, at least 27 institutions supportive of women were active in Afghanistan, but all of them are now closed.
“The Islamic Emirate replaced the Ministry of Women's Affairs with the Ministry of Virtue and Vice but pledged to form a department to run women's affairs. The department will be active under the supervision of the Vice and Virtue Ministry.
“We are trying to facilitate girls' and women’s activities under the umbrella of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, so
they can work,” said Akif Mahajar, a spokesman for the ministry.”
Amnesty International, Afghanistan: Survivors of gender-based violence abandoned following Taliban takeover – new research, 6 December 2021
“Essential services for women and girl survivors of gender-based violence in Afghanistan have been decimated
following the Taliban’s takeover of the country, Amnesty International said today.
In 26 new interviews, survivors and service providers told Amnesty International that the Taliban closed shelters and released detainees from prison, including many convicted of gender-based violence offences.
Many survivors – as well as shelter staff, lawyers, judges, government officials, and others involved in protective services – are now at risk of violence and death. [...]
Amnesty International interviewed survivors and individuals involved in protective services in the provinces of Badghis, Bamiyan, Daikundi, Herat, Kabul, Kunduz, Nangarhar, Paktika, Sar-e Pul, and Takhar. [...]
As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the system of protective services collapsed. Shelters were closed, and many were looted and appropriated by members of the Taliban. In some cases, Taliban members harassed or threatened staff. [...]
As shelters closed, staff were forced to send many women and girl survivors back to their families, and other survivors were forcibly removed by family members. Other survivors were forced to live with shelter staff members, on the street, or in other unsustainable situations.
Zeenat* was regularly beaten by her husband and brother before she took refuge in a shelter. When the Taliban arrived, she and several other women fled. They are now in hiding. She said: “We came only with the clothes we were wearing. We don’t have a heater, and we go to sleep hungry… My brother is my enemy, and my husband is my enemy. If he sees me and my children, he’ll kill us… I am sure they are looking for me because they know the shelter has closed.”
One shelter director, currently in hiding with some survivors from her shelter, told Amnesty International: “We don’t have a proper place. We can’t go out. We are so scared… Please bring us out of here. If not, then you can wait for us to be killed.” [...]
Amnesty International also received credible reports that survivors have also been transferred by the Taliban into the detention system, including to Pul-e-Charkhi prison, near Kabul. [...]
Many working within the system of protective services said that although they faced significant risks before the
Taliban’s takeover, their lives are now in greater danger, and they are in desperate need of protection.
One service provider who was based in Badghis explained: “All of these women who worked on this [the support
system] – now we need a shelter… We live each day in anxiety and fear.”
A service provider who was based in Nangarhar said: “I am getting threats from the Taliban, ISIS, perpetrators and the family members… on a daily basis.”
Another service provider who was based in Bamiyan said: “I was getting three calls each day from men who had
escaped the prison. After I received a call from the Taliban as well, I switched to a new number.” ”
The Guardian, ‘I don’t know where to go’: uncertain fate of the women in Kabul’s shelters, 1 October 2021
“Women in refuges have been sent home to their abusers or to prison since the Taliban takeover. Those in the few
shelters still open fear what lies ahead [...]
The shelter is one of nearly 30 such facilities in Afghanistan. Built up over the past 20 years, they operated as a discreet and often hidden part of the international community’s commitment to advancing the rights of Afghan women. Most of the women’s cases were resolved within months, but some spent years at the shelter, learning new skills so they could reintegrate into society.
the request of the Taliban, meaning women have either been sent home, often back to their abusers, or moved to
secret locations. [...]
Of the three shelter directors who spoke to the Guardian, none are taking in new women. [...]
Mahbooba Seraj, a veteran women’s rights activist and manager of a shelter for 30 women in Kabul, says the Taliban are still figuring out what to do about women’s refuges. “They’re afraid that women in the shelters will leave, and end up on the streets and enter prostitution, which is very possible,” she says by phone from Kabul. “And they do not want that.”
Two weeks ago, 15 Taliban police officers , including secret police, visited Seraj’s shelter over several days, noting residents’ names and snooping around. The women wore veils so they could not be identified, Seraj said.
Seraj told the Taliban that their visit was exceptional – a man had never crossed her shelter’s threshold before. “They looked at me as if they didn’t believe me. And one policeman asked, ‘Even the Americans?’ I laughed and said, ‘Neither American nor Afghan. Period.’ Why they thought Americans visited is beyond me.””