The Taliban are punishing women who breach a strict dress code with electric shocks, a report has alleged. Women have reportedly been knocked unconscious for resisting efforts by Afghanistan‘s morality police to arrest them over what they are wearing, according to eyewitnesses and victims. Electric shocks are also being used inside women’s prisons.
One woman was reportedly given an electric shock after standing her ground when four Taliban police officers challenged her over the way she was dressed. Nafisa, 20, told Rukhshana Media, an outlet which reports on Afghan women’s daily lives, she could remember nothing after being given the shock when she resisted being detained.
Her older sister, Zohal, 24, told Rukhshana Media that Nafisa fell on the ground, thrown into a vehicle and driven off. The same outlet said both names have been changed to ensure the safety of both women.
Zohal is reported as saying: “It was the worst moment of my life and those seconds felt like hours. I kept asking people for help, but they walked away. No one dared to say a word to the Taliban.”
Rights won previously have been eroded since the Taliban seized power in 2021. Under Taliban rule, women and girls have been banned from going to school, university and from working.
They are also banned from accessing healthcare without a male chaperone, going to the gym and playing sports.
Earlier this month, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhunzada, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court on charges of persecuting women and girls.
The warrants also accuse the leaders of persecuting other people who don’t conform with the Taliban’s policy on gender and political grounds, including those seen as allies of girls and women.
In response, Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the Taliban government, rejected the court’s authority.
He said in a statement that the court’s decision reflected open hostility and hatred toward the holy religion of Islam and Shariah law. Mr Mujahid said the move was an insult to the beliefs of all Muslims.
The warrants came hours after the United Nations adopted a resolution which called on the Taliban to reverse its worsening oppression of women and girls and eliminate all terrorist organisations.