Afghanistan: One year of the Taliban’s broken promises, draconian restrictions and violence 

Since seizing control of Afghanistan a year ago, the Taliban have mounted a sustained attack on human rights, persecuting minority groups, violently clamping down on peaceful protests, suppressing women’s rights and using extrajudicial executions and disappearances to spread fear among Afghans, Amnesty International said in a new briefing today. 

The briefing, The Rule of Taliban: A Year of Violence, Impunity and False Promises, documents gross human rights violations under a year of Taliban rule. It reveals widespread impunity for crimes such as torture, revenge killings and forced evictions of opponents of the Taliban, who initially promised to uphold women’s rights, press freedom and an amnesty for government officials. 

“A year ago, the Taliban made public commitments to protect and promote human rights. Yet the speed with which they are dismantling 20 years of human rights gains is staggering. Any hopes of change have quickly evaporated as the Taliban seek to govern through violent repression with full impunity,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s South Asia Regional Director. 

“Arbitrary detentions, torture, disappearances, summary executions have returned as the order of the day. Women and girls have been stripped of their rights and face a bleak future, deprived of education or the possibility of taking part in public life.” 

Amnesty International is calling on the Taliban to immediately stop committing gross human rights violations and crimes under international law. As Afghanistan’s de facto authorities, the Taliban must urgently restore, protect and promote the rights of Afghan people. 

“To prevent Afghanistan’s human rights crisis from spiralling further, the international community must take meaningful action to hold the Taliban accountable for these crimes,” Yamini Mishra said. 

Arbitrary detentions, torture, disappearances, summary executions have returned as the order of the day. Women and girls have been stripped of their rights and face a bleak future, deprived of education or the possibility of taking part in public life.

– Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s South Asia Regional Director. 

Freedom of expression & assembly 

Amnesty International’s research details the use of excessive force by the Taliban’s security forces as they try to police a ban on peaceful protests. In several large cities, security forces dispelled peaceful protests by beating and shooting unarmed protesters. 

One protester from Herat province told Amnesty International of the injuries inflicted by security forces: “I saw one man lying in a pool of blood in a ditch in the street; I believe he had been killed… My hand was fractured but I didn’t go to the hospital, fearing that I could be arrested for participating in the protests.” 

The Taliban’s crackdown on freedom of expression has targeted human rights defenders and civil society activists, many of whom have been harassed, threatened, detained, and even killed as a direct result of their human rights work.  

Press freedom has also come under attack. On 19 September 2021, the Government Media and Information Centre (GMIC) issued an order containing vague wording that forbids journalists from publishing stories ‘contrary to Islam’ or ‘insulting to national figures’.  

In the past year, more than 80 journalists have been arrested and tortured for reporting on peaceful protests. One journalist told Amnesty International: “I was beaten and whipped so hard on my legs that I couldn’t stand… My family signed (a) document, promising that I would not speak out about what happened to me after my release; if I did, the Taliban would have the right to arrest my entire family.”  

“In the morning of 7th September 2021, I came out of my home and saw a crowd of men and women gathering near the Shahr-e-Naw area of Herat city holding banners.”
An eye-witness to the protests in Herat who is now living in Iran tells his story

“I joined the protests and we walked slowly towards the Herat governor’s office; by that time we were around 200-300 people. We were chanting slogans but we were all peaceful; there was no use of violence, just chanting slogans against the Taliban.

The crowd was getting bigger and bigger when Taliban soldiers started shooting in the air and as the crowd disbursed in fear as we saw the bullets were coming towards the people.

I saw several protesters getting injured and I saw one man lying in a pool of blood in a ditch in the street; I believe he had been killed.

As we were running the bullets kept coming towards us, men and women were running in all directions. I and many other protesters got injured as we were running away.

My hand was fractured but I didn’t go to the hospital, fearing that I could be arrested for participating in the protests. I know several other protesters were also arrested after they were identified by the Taliban.
I had to flee to Iran.”


Arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment 

Since August 2021, there have been widespread reports of Taliban soldiers beating and torturing Afghans deemed to have broken Taliban edicts or accused of working with the former government. 

Hundreds of civilians have been unlawfully detained. Many are beaten with rifle butts or whipped during arrest. Sahiba* (not her real name), a female protestor, told Amnesty International her body was covered in bruises after the Taliban security forces finished with her.  

“There was no court, no charges and no due process; we were abducted from the streets, kept in a private jail for several days during which we had no access to our family, lawyer or any other official… Some of the women and girls who were with me in the same room never returned and none of us knew what happened to them,” Sahiba said. 

“My uncle was a member of the ousted government’s army who went into hiding after Taliban took control.”

Mohammad Musa (a pseudonym) tells the horrific story of what the Taliban did to his uncle

He received several calls from the Taliban who encouraged him to return to work as there was a great need for his skills; he was promised amnesty and safety by the Taliban.

Despite his family’s fears that he will be harmed, he insisted that the Taliban commander had given his word and that he wouldn’t let him be harmed. In the month of October, he returned to Kandahar and went to his office.

According to one of our acquittances, who is also a member of the Taliban and was an eyewitness, the commander greeted my uncle warmly and asked him to sit near him. He offered him tea and asked how he felt returning and sharing the office with the Taliban, the ones who he had fought against. Then the commander asked his men to take my uncle to the workshop so he could see the equipment that needs repair. He left with three armed Taliban but never returned home.

We looked everywhere for him, his brothers, father and several other relatives went to the office and inquired about him. The commander first said that he never came to the office; then he said that he had come for a brief meeting and then left.

We knew immediately what had probably happened to him. After several days his body was found, riddled with bullets and with signs of severe torture all over his body.

The family didn’t dare to ask for an investigation fearing that it could cost them another life or maybe more. He left behind six young children, a widow and a broken family. There was no justice for him.”

Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances 

Revenge killings, summary executions of alleged resistance fighters and other crimes reportedly committed since the Taliban takeover could amount to war crimes.  

There have been hundreds of extra judicial killings, with bodies found with gunshot wounds or signs of torture. Dozens of people have been disappeared, their whereabouts still unknown, because of their work under the previous government or because they are suspected of being involved in resistance against the Taliban.  

Torab Kakar, 34, told Amnesty International, that despite securing a “pardon letter” from the Taliban, his friend Jalal, who had served in the Afghan National Defence Security Forces (ANDSF), was taken away to an undisclosed location by the Taliban.  

“The Taliban tied his hands behind him, blind-folded him and kept beating him while his wife and children, parents and younger siblings were crying and screaming.” When Jalal’s family looked for him, they were threatened by the local head of intelligence and warned to stop their search. 

“The Taliban tied his hands behind him, blind-folded him and kept beating him while his wife and children, parents and younger siblings were crying and screaming.”

Torab Kakar, 34 about his friend Jalal

Persecution of ethnic and religious minorities

Within weeks of the Taliban taking power, reports emerged of non-Pashtun Afghans being forcibly evicted from their homes and farms, so that the Taliban could reward their followers with land taken from other groups, particularly Hazaras, Turkmen and Uzbeks.  

Evictions were reported across the country, including in Balkh, Helmand, Daikundi, Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces, contributing to already huge numbers of internally displaced people. By June 2022, the United Nations estimated that the number of internally displaced Afghans had grown to more than 820,000. 

On 30 August 2021, the Taliban unlawfully killed 13 ethnics Hazaras, including a 17-year-old girl, in Daikundi province. According to eyewitness testimony gathered by Amnesty International, the Taliban extrajudicially executed nine former members of the ANDSF who had surrendered — killings that appear to be war crimes.  

Restrictions on women and girls   

The Taliban have subjected women to increasing violence since they took power. Sometimes as a way of punishing their family members. 

Lida, the wife of a former member of the Afghan security forces, was shot and killed by two armed Taliban men on a motorbike. The 22-year-old, who was eight months pregnant, was killed along with her two children aged two and four years old.  

Dozens of women have been arrested and tortured for holding peaceful protests demanding their rights, amid mounting restrictions that have stripped away their freedoms.  

The Taliban has clamped down on the right to education, blighting the prospects for millions of Afghan girls. When secondary schools reopened on 17 September 2021, the Taliban forbid girls above grade six to attend, claiming it was a temporary situation while they recruited more female teachers and ensured ‘appropriate’ conditions were put in place for gender segregated education. To date, none of these plans have been implemented.  

Meena* (not her real name), a 29-year-old teacher from Kabul, told Amnesty International of her despair for her daughter’s future: “…we are repeating history… I look at my uniform, remembering the school days, students, and teachers but I am left with no choice but to stay home.”  

Lolah (a pseudonym), a 16-year-old student in year 10 of high school describes 23 March 2022 as the worst day of her life.

“When the Taliban announced they were going to open the schools,
I felt like I was flying.”

“I didn’t sleep the whole night after I heard the announcement and I was thinking of my first day back at school and seeing my friends. We went to buy a new uniform and white headscarf, new black shoes, socks, notebooks, pens, pencil-case and all other material for myself and my sister.

On 23 March, my sister and I walked out of our house and the street looked beautiful to me — seeing everyone going to school, boys and girls. We met several of our friends and classmates on the way and we were all talking so loud and laughing and cheering. I was feeling that I was given a second chance to live, it was beautiful.

We went to our classes, sat at our desks and the teacher started talking about the schedule. Then a school staff member came and asked the teacher to come to the office for a meeting.

After a few minutes we saw the teachers coming back crying.

I couldn’t believe my ears and then the cheering of the girls turned into crying. It felt like we were in a mourning ceremony. Everyone was crying.

We were ordered to leave. On the way home, everyone I saw was sad or crying including the men selling snacks on the street – they wouldn’t make eye contact and they were sad too. I dragged myself home.

Now I feel that I lost my life, my hope and my future. I don’t know what the future will look like for me, my dream of becoming a doctor is shattered and I never felt so empty in my life.”

DECREES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS MADE BY THE TALIBAN BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 2021-MAY 2022

“We must not just stand on the side-lines, watching as the human rights of a whole population collapses. A firm, meaningful and united international response is the only hope of ending the nightmare that Afghans have endured for a year now.” 

Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s South Asia Regional Director.   

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One year since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, a litany of human rights abuses has been committed against the civilian population with absolute impunity and zero accountability. #1yearofTaliban https://bit.ly/3BVV4Wv
Within a year of the Taliban rule, Afghanistan is facing an acute human rights crisis. It is time to call on The Taliban to end this cycle of violence. #1yearofTaliban https://bit.ly/3BVV4Wv
Afghanistan’s human rights situation has deteriorated significantly in one year under the Taliban’s rule. #ProtectHumanRights of the Afghan people. #1yearofTaliban https://bit.ly/3BVV4Wv