Women accused of adultery and desertion are being tortured in Taliban prisons

The Afghan Prosecutors Association has accused the Taliban of torturing women and girls accused of immoral conduct.

The association’s head of internal affairs, Matiullah Shahab, said anyone suspected of “running away from home and having sex outside marriage” risks arbitrary arrest and beating in prison.

Mr Shahab is based abroad but said his information came from sources inside Afghanistan. In addition to beating female prisoners, the Taliban denied them adequate food before trial.

“The Taliban’s pressure on the defenseless and oppressed people of Afghanistan, has not only taken food from people’s tables. It has destroyed public peace and comfort,” he said. “Even men are arrested and detained illegally for months in the detention center and prison on the charge that they are passing through public places with their wives, mothers, and sisters.”

He accused police of following their prejudices rather than legal procedures, claiming members of the Taliban in the districts, provinces and centers lacked the professional training to understand or properly implement the law.

“[Taliban] in police departments, prosecutor’s offices, and courts only follow their structured and regulated principles,” Mr. Shahab said. “Basically, the tastes and customs of a particular group are called laws. Those tastes are applied to orders day by day, the articles of law are not.”

Mr Shahab considers the detention of women for alleged immoral conduct is aimed at defaming people the Taliban can’t control.

“The Taliban is afraid of the existence of enlightened people, they [the Taliban] disperse or defame people under different pretexts. Because when there is no bread to eat, there is no reason for moral corruption. People of a society do not engage in moral corruption instead of finding bread.”

The Taliban spokesperson for Herat police said in a newsletter yesterday that in two separate cases, two women and two men from the fifth and seventh districts of Herat city have been arrested on charges of running away from home and having sex outside marriage.

The newsletter did not provide details about their identities but said the cases have been handed over to judicial bodies.

Recently the Taliban increased restrictions on women in Herat province. The Vice and Virtue police warned drivers of three-wheeled vehicles and motorbikes not to allow girls wearing mantles to ride.

The Taliban has also ordered the closure of beauty salons across the country.