Arrests and torture of women by the Taliban continue
There is still no news about the fate of Ms. Julia Parsi and Ms. Neda Parwani during the past month, when the news of the arrest of Ms. Manizha Sediqi was confirmed. Ms.Manizha Sediqi disappeared from the Karte Naw district of Kabul on October 9, 2023. Due to security threats in the past fifteen days, his family did not want to make the issue of Manizha’s disappearance public. They searched everywhere for her, but did not get any information about her.
Finally, on October 24, her family found out that she was kidnapped by the Taliban intelligence. But they still don’t know in which prison or detention center of the Taliban, Manizha is kept and whether she is alive or not?
Ms. Manizha Sediqi was one of the women protestors in Kabul who fought for the rights and freedom of Afghan women against the misogynist Taliban regime and was always active in street protests.
“The protesting women said that these arrests were carried out by the intelligence of the Taliban administration. Therefore, the spokespersons of this group refused to comment on this matter and do not share any information with the media… After retaking power in Afghanistan in the middle of August 2021, the Taliban have arrested a number of their journalists and critics. Sources have repeatedly told DW that the Taliban arrest women protesters with the aim of disbanding women’s protest movements and silencing their voices. (Deutsche Welle (DW), October 24, 2023)
The Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women strongly condemns this series of arrests and abduction of protesting women by the Taliban and demands the immediate release of all imprisoned women. The international community and major human rights organizations should not continue to watch the imprisonment, torture and killing of protesting Afghan women by the medieval regime of the Taliban. The cruel actions of the Taliban against women should be prevented by all means. We should make efforts for the release of imprisoned women and lobby for the granting of immediate asylum to women under the threat of the Taliban.
Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women (SMAW)
October 25, 2023; Kabul, Afghanistan
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For unconditional asylum for threatened women activists and for financial support for the organization of women’s “protection houses” and clandestine schools for girls in Afghanistan.
We need your funding!
You can support us by making a credit card donation using the secure button in the link below.
Or by cheque payable to : “Comité international de défense des femmes afghanes” addressed to Comité international de défense des femmes afghanes, 67 av. Faidherbe 93100 Montreuil FRANCE
This year, the condemnation of October 7th, the day of the US and its allies’ military attack on Afghanistan, was accompanied by the demand for freedom and asylum for Afghan women. The “International Committee for the Defense of Afghan Women” following the proposal of the “Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women” launched a global campaign to appeal for asylum for protesting women wanted by the Taliban. The United States and its allies, who agreed in the February 2020 Doha agreement to return power to the Taliban, are responsible for the current hellish situation of women under the Taliban’s misogynistic regime. Granting immediate asylum to protesting women is the least right they have to compensate.
The appeal of the International Committee was welcomed in several countries of the world such as Afghanistan (Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Takhar, Balkh, badakhshan, Farah, Kunduz), Bangladesh (Chittagong and Dhaka), Pakistan (Lahore, Karachi, Sindh), Canada (Ottawa, Toronto), USA (Seattle, New York and San Francisco), Mexico (Mexicali and Chiapas) Martinique, Benin, Portugal, Spanish State (Bilbao), France (Paris and Auch, Avignon, Brest, Charleville, Cherbourg, Dreux, Elbeuf, Grenoble, Lille, Lisieux, Manosque, Marseille, Metz, Montpellier, Nancy, Orléans, Tours and Villeurbanne), Germany (Berlin), Italy (Torino), Norway (Oslo), Australia (Melbourne and other cities). Courageous activists successfully organized demonstrations, meetings, gatherings, protests and other lobbying initiatives. The central agenda of all these gatherings was expressing solidarity with Afghan women and asking their governments to grant immediate asylum to Afghan women.
Undoubtedly, the solidarity and support of all the activists and participants of these actions for demanding asylum for protesting women under the threat of the Taliban gives hope to women in Afghanistan. While the indifference of the international community in the last two years of Taliban rule towards the sad situation of women is shameful and reprehensible, on the contrary, the humanitarian activities and sympathy of the masses of women, men and young people with conscience all over the world in front of the deprived women of Afghanistan is admirable and inspiring.
The Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women (SMAW) on behalf of all the deprived and suffering women of Afghanistan and those who are still in Taliban prisons or are forced to live a secret life to escape the persecution and torture of the Taliban, thanks the leadership of “International Committee for the Defense of Afghan Women” and all the members of this committee as well as each and every person who took part in these gatherings and raised the voice of Afghan women. Just as the women of Afghanistan will not forget the dark and catastrophic events in the history of Afghanistan, they will continue to owe your sympathy, friendship and solidarity forever.
Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women (SMAW)
October 12, 2023 Kabul, Afghanistan
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For unconditional asylum for threatened women activists and for financial support for the organization of women’s “protection houses” and clandestine schools for girls in Afghanistan.
We need your funding!
You can support us by making a credit card donation using the secure button in the link below.
Or by cheque payable to : “Comité international de défense des femmes afghanes” addressed to Comité international de défense des femmes afghanes, 67 av. Faidherbe 93100 Montreuil FRANCE
On October 7, 2023 (the sombre anniversary of NATO’s invasion of Afghanistan in 2001), in response to a proposal by the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women, the International Committee for the Defense of Afghan Women called for rallies, pickets and initiatives around the world to demand:
That the governments of the major powers grant immediate welcome and asylum to persecuted Afghan women!
That Neda Parwani, Julia Parsi and all arrested activists be released!
This call has been widely echoed: in Afghanistan, in eight provinces, and all over the world. Women and men, workers, students, activists from women’s, democratic, trade union and political organizations rallied around these slogans.
(We apologize in advance if we have missed out any of the photos).
En Afghanistan
In the provinces of Badakhshan, Balkh, Farah, Kaboul, Kunduz, Laghman, Nangarhar and Takhar
In Bangladesh
Chittagong et Dacca
In Pakistan
In Lahore, Karachi and Sind
In Canada
In Ottawa et Toronto
In the United States
Seattle, New York and San Francisco
In Mexico
Mexicali and Chiapas
In Martinique
In Benin
In Portugal
In the Spanish State
Bilbao
In France
Paris and Auch, Avignon, Brest, Charleville, Cherbourg, Dreux, Elbeuf, Grenoble, Lille, Lisieux, Manosque, Marseille, Metz, Montpellier, Nancy, Orléans, Tours and Villeurbanne…
In Germany
Berlin
In Italy
Torino
In Norway
Oslo
In Australia
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For unconditional asylum for threatened women activists and for financial support for the organization of women’s “protection houses” and clandestine schools for girls in Afghanistan.
We need your funding!
You can support us by making a credit card donation using the secure button in the link below.
Or by cheque payable to : “Comité international de défense des femmes afghanes” addressed to Comité international de défense des femmes afghanes, 67 av. Faidherbe 93100 Montreuil FRANCE
Neda Parwani, one of the women fighters of the Afghan women’s protest movement, was arrested on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 in Kabul. The Taliban arrested Mrs. Neda Parwani along with her husband and a 14-year-old son from their house in Khairkhana, Kabul and transferred them to an unknown place.
Neda Parvani fought for the right to education, the right to work and the freedom of women. The Taliban always suppress and threaten protesting women to be silent and not participate in protests against the Taliban. In the last two years, the Taliban government has arrested, tortured and killed hundreds of protesting women during the protests or later from their homes.
Right now in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, hundreds of protesting women are under threat and persecution. They are forced to continue their struggle behind closed doors and adopt a difficult secret life to avoid arrest and torture by the Taliban.
The “Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women” condemns the arrest of Neda Parwani, her husband and 14-year-old son and demands their immediate and unconditional release. We ask the international community and great powers to provide immediate asylum for women under threat and to put pressure on the Taliban to stop suppressing and imprisoning protesting women in Afghanistan.
Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women (SMAW)
September 20, 2023
Kabul, Afghanistan
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A painful story of Saleema Shabnam an activist of SMAW
“You made our family infamous with your wrong deeds. You disgraced us among our people. You put my whole family in danger of death. I don’t want you anymore, go wherever you go!” These were the first words that I was greeted with by my husband after being released from prison and returning home after 19 days.
« I oftenly participated in the protests organized by the Afghan Women’s Spontaneous Movement. On January 12, 2023, I was arrested from my home by Taliban intelligence and transferred to Polcharkhi prison in Kabul.
« My crime was that I wanted “work, bread, education and freedom” for myself and other women. I don’t want my children to grow up illiterate and miserable like me. The Taliban men beat me in prison, slapped me on my face, hit my back and legs with a stick. They threatened me with death and rape. They wanted to make me surrender so that I would not dare to join the protesting women and raise my voice in the future.
« In the tribal society and patriarchal culture of Afghanistan, the appearance of women on the road and chanting slogans for rights and freedom is considered to be an expression of disrespect for religious and patriarchal values. Whenever a woman is arrested by the police and kept in jail for days and nights, countless suspicions are created about her character and chastity. For example, her husband and family and the society as a whole think that she was sexually assaulted in prison and that she was touched by unauthorized persons. Therefore, her husband and family are no longer ready to accept her in their family.
« Even though my body was full of wounds and I was very weak and I desperately needed treatment and sympathy from my family and especially my husband, he not only didn’t hug me and didn’t support me, but he scolded me in an insulting way and closed the gate of the house.I inevitably went to my sister’s house and lived there for a few days. But very soon, my sister’s family also refused to accommodate me. Because they were afraid that the Taliban would find out and cause a security problem for them because of me.
« My heart was completely broken and I did not know who and where to seek refuge? On the one hand, the threat of the Taliban was tormenting me, and on the other hand, my husband’s baseless accusations. Finally, I managed to find one of the activists of the “Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women” and asked her for help. Now I live with my 5 children in the “Safe House” of the SMAW.
« I would like to declare that, as long as I live, I will fight together with the “Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women” for my right and the right to educate my children and I will not stop. But really, living in hiding is like a prison and there is a risk of arrest and death at any moment. On the one hand, the threat of the Taliban and on the other hand, the threat of my husband, who is trying to take my children away from me by force. »
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For unconditional asylum for threatened women activists and for financial support for the organization of women’s “protection houses” and clandestine schools for girls in Afghanistan. We need your funding! You can support us by making a credit card donation using the secure button in the link below.
Or by bank transfer to: “COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL DE DÉFENSE DES FEMMES AFGHANES” (INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENSE OF AFGHAN WOMEN) BIC/SWIFT : CMCIFR2A ; IBAN : FR76 1027 8060 5000 0213 5650 174
Or by cheque payable to : “Comité international de défense des femmes afghanes” addressed to Comité international de défense des femmes afghanes, 67 av. Faidherbe 93100 Montreuil FRANCE
We have just received this message from the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women.
“The Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women would like to suggest to the International Committee for the Defence of Afghan Women that it organize campaigns, actions and rallies on 7 October 2023 throughout the world, in support of the rights of the Afghan women oppressed by the Taliban regime, and to put pressure on governments – particularly the major powers – to grant immediate and unconditional asylum to Afghan women and women activists who are being hunted down and threatened with death because they have dared to fight for their rights.
“Why 7 October? Because it is a painful date in the memory of the Afghan people. It was on 7 October 2001 that the government of the United States, leading a vast coalition of governments and NATO, launched its so-called ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan, followed by twenty years of occupation during which the ‘mother of all bombs’ was used, causing the loss of tens of thousands of lives of men, women and children.
“In 2001, the US government overthrew the Taliban regime, handing power largely to the forces of the ‘Northern Alliance’, made up of religious fundamentalists, warlords, human rights abusers and war criminals. Then, on 15 August 2021, the US government reinstated the Taliban to power, who since then have continued to take measures that exclude women from all aspects of public life: they are banned from working, from getting an education, and even from walking in the street and in public places.
“Through the International Committee, we want to urge all human rights organizations, all defenders of women’s rights, all workers’ unions, all youth organizations and all conscientious individuals to support this international day on 7 October and to actively take part in it.
“The voices of oppressed Afghan women must be heard, and governments that claim to respect women’s rights must stop signing agreements and deals with the misogynist Taliban regime. The Taliban regime must not be supported either politically or financially, and should not under any circumstances be recognized. The women’s protest movement inside Afghanistan must be given help, and women who are threatened and in danger should immediately be granted asylum“.
We appeal to all those who support the International Committee for the Defence of Afghan Women and its activities, in particular those who have supported the two European tours of activists from the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women.
Please answer the call from our sisters in Afghanistan!
Together, let us call rallies and pickets in scores of cities around the world on 7 October, gathering as many people as possible, in solidarity with their struggle.
On our banners, signs and posters let us demand that the governments of the major powers grant immediate and unconditional asylum to the Afghan women activists being threatened and persecuted.
…Then publish and circulate photos of these Saturday 7 October rallies all over the world and in Afghanistan, so that our sisters in Afghanistan and all those who support their struggle in their country know that they are not alone!
Rubina Jamil (Pakistan), Christel Keiser (France), for the International Committee
In France, after months of lobbying the authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied to the International Committee on 1 September. The response reads, in part: “You have made some interesting proposals that have attracted our full attention. I have therefore asked the teams responsible for monitoring Afghanistan at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs to liaise with you to discuss these avenues.”
The French branch of the International Committee, made up of political and trade union activists, elected representatives, writers and other personalities, immediately contacted the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs to take further steps to secure asylum and refuge for our sisters being persecuted in Afghanistan.
This is yet further encouragement for the organizing of pickets in solidarity with the women of Afghanistan in every town in France on Saturday 7 October.
******
To help this campaign expand
You can support the International Committee for the Defence of Afghan Women by promoting its website: https://defendafghanwomen.org/ and its press releases.
Your financial donation can be made to the International Committee:
We publish this press release from the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women following the Taliban government’s decision to close all the country’s beauty salons, thereby depriving tens of thousands of women of their jobs and closing one of the last places where women could meet.
The Taliban responds to women’s calls for freedom with bullets and violence
On July 19, 2023, dozens of young women and girls took to the streets of Kabul and chanted the slogan “work, bread and freedom”. These women protested against the order to close women’s beauty salons and asked the Taliban government to let women work and study.
Although the women’s demonstration was held in a peaceful and civil manner, the misogynistic police of the Taliban prevented the continuation of the women’s demonstration. The Taliban used sprinklers, aerial fire and violence against protesting women to scatter them. Dozens of women were beaten and injured by the Taliban. The Taliban searched and chased the organizers of the demonstration, at least 8 women were detained during/after the demonstration and then transferred to an unknown location.
According to the order of the Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhund, on July 3rd the “Ministry of Vice and Virtue” gave a month’s deadline to all the owners of all women’s beauty salons to close their businesses. The Taliban consider the industry of women’s beauty parlors to be against Islamic Sharia.
Based on the figures of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, there are 3,100 hairdressing salons in Kabul and 12,000 beauty salons in other provinces, where more than 60,000 women work. Every woman who works in this business is the sole breadwinner of her family of 6 people. By closing women’s beauty salons, the Taliban are actually directly confronting 360,000 people with starvation and poverty.
By brutally suppressing, killing and imprisoning dozens and hundreds of protesting women, the Taliban thought that women would no longer have the courage to protest and fight publicly, but on Wednesday, brave Afghan women proved that the voice of justice will never be silenced and that women will continue to fight and protest for their right to work, education and freedom, accepting any kind of risk.
Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women (SMAW) – July 20, 2023, Kabul
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Success for the second European Tour of the International Committee for the Defence of Afghan Women
Five conferences (Lisbon, Bilbao, Marseille, Turin and Geneva), presented by Ranna Amani
The cause of Afghan women mobilised a large number of women, political and trade union activists, elected representatives and lawyers during the second European Tour* organised by the International Committee for the Defence of Afghan Women.
In Lisbon (Portugal) on 26 June, Bilbao (Spain) on 27 June, Marseille (France) on 28 June, Turin (Italy) on 29 June and Geneva (Switzerland) on 30 June, Ranna Amani, an activist with the Afghan Women’s Spontaneous Movement, described the plight of women in her country since the Biden administration reinstated the obscurantist and reactionary Taliban militia to power in August 2021.
Speaking before an attentive audience, Ranna Amani outlined the foundations of the spontaneous Afghan Women’s Movement, which was formed in Kabul in September 2021: “Our movement is social, independent, democratic and secular. We are fighting for total gender equality and for the rights of ethnic and religious minorities. A Taliban government or one made up of Taliban and jihadists guilty of war crimes and corrupt remnants of the previous regime (the one that reigned during the twenty years of NATO occupation – editor’s note) is unacceptable. We demand that foreign countries stop interfering in Afghanistan’s affairs. We want a secular and democratic government based on free national elections“.
Ranna recalled the many initiatives taken by the movement, despite the terrible repression against them: demonstrations against the exclusion of women and girls from schools and universities, and more generally from the public sphere; the creation of “protection houses” to house women activists persecuted by the regime; and the setting up of clandestine schools for young girls.
All of these public meetings were an opportunity for participants to express their indignation at attempts to give official recognition to the bloodthirsty Taliban regime.
For example, the eighty participants at the Marseille meeting unanimously condemned “the hypocrisy of the Norwegian government in inviting representatives of the Taliban regime to the ‘Forum for Freedom’ in Oslo from 13 to 15 June”.
The mayor of Marseille’s 4th and 5th sectors, Didier Jau, was there to wish the Afghan women activists “courage in your struggle for your rights“.
In Bilbao, the fifty-five participants – women activists, labour and anti-war activists – pledged “to appeal to the authorities in our country, that immediate asylum be granted to the threatened activists“.
The same commitments were made in Turin, Marseille, Geneva and Lisbon, where the meeting was held in the offices of the women’s organisation UMAR, founded in the wake of the 1974 Portuguese revolution.
* At the beginning of June, a first tour presented by Hasina Sadet took place in Metz (France), Brussels and Liège (Belgium), Erfurt and Berlin (Germany).
To help this campaign expand
You can support the International Committee for the Defence of Afghan Women by promoting its website: https://defendafghanwomen.org/ and its press releases.
Your financial donation can be made to the International Committee:
Ranna Amani, an activist with the Afghan Women’s Spontaneous Movement, will be holding public meetings in Lisbon (Portugal), Bilbao (Spain), Marseille (France), Turin (Italy) and Geneva (Switzerland).
– In Lisbon, Monday 26 June at 6pm
At the headquarters of the Uniao de Mulheres Alternativa e Reposta (UMAR)
Rua da Cozinha Económica a Alcântara
– In Barakaldo (Bilbao), Tuesday 27 June at 7pm
Clara Campoamor Cultural Centre
Gernikako Arbola Etorbidea, 41, 48902 Barakaldo
– In Marseille, Wednesday 28 June at 6.30 pm
CMA Les Chartreux
108 bd Françoise Duparc, 13004 Marseille
– In Turin, Thursday 29 June at 8.30pm
Via Fagnano 30, Torino
– In Geneva, Friday 30 June at 7.30pm
Maison Internationale des Associations (René Dumont room)
15, Rue des Savoises, Geneva.
Help us fund the International Committee’s activities
The two tours by Afghan women activists in Europe are entirely self-financed. Any additional funds raised will go to the Afghan Women’s Spontaneous Movement.
You can now make your contribution to the International Committee:
The recent report of the United Nations, which was presented by Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur for Afghanistan on Thursday June 15, 2023, confirms the physical and psychological torture by which the Taliban suppresses and silences the protests of Afghan women. The report called it a “widespread and systematic discrimination to which women and girls in Afghanistan are subjected.”
The UN report states that the Taliban has deprived Afghan women of all their political and social rights and created a male government without the presence of women. The report underlines that since August 2021, “one of the most illustrative examples of the systematic discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan today is the relentless issuance of edicts, decrees, declarations and directives restricting their rights, including their freedom of movement, attire and behaviour, and their access to education, work, health and justice”.
Richard Bennett reveals in his report that the peaceful protests of women in Kabul and other provinces, who raised their voices for their denied rights, were brutally suppressed by the Taliban in order to prevent it from spreading and gaining strength. “The Taliban brutally beat the protesting women and subjected them to sexual violence and torture.” The Taliban abducted hundreds of protesting women during street protests or later from their homes at night and transferred them to unknown places. In most cases, the Taliban denied the involvement of their people in kidnapping, arresting and killing women, but after national and international pressure, they released some detained women from their official and personal prisons.
Richard Bennett points out in his report that some of the protesting women were released from the Taliban prisons on the condition that they must “cease their protest activities and remain silent about the way they were treated by (the Taliban) and also the payment” The Taliban not only imprison and torture protesting women, but also threaten, arrest, imprison and kill the family members of active protesting women and other men who defend women’s rights. As a recent example, we can mention the capture, torture and imprisonment of Professor Ismail Mashal and Matiullah Wisa by the Taliban.
In its report, the United Nations commends the bravery and resistance of Afghan women against the Taliban: “Although the women and girls are tired, their resistance and struggle for their human dignity… continue in peaceful and creative ways“.
The Spontaneous Women’s Movement has always emphasized that the United States and its allies were responsible for the current tragedy in Afghanistan, which handed over political power to the Taliban for their strategic interests without considering the fate of Afghan women. Fortunately, the United Nations report also criticizes the United States in this particular case of women, who ignored women’s rights during negotiations with the Taliban in Doha in 2020 for “political expediency “. The report states that “in the Doha agreement that paved the way for the return of the Taliban to power, there is not a single mention of women’s rights or a guarantee to preserve them.”
The Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women asks the United Nations not only to publish and condemn the brutal acts of the Taliban against Afghan women, but to implement the necessary and effective practical measures. The United Nations and the international community should no longer witness the deprivation, torture and murder of Afghan women under the rule of the Taliban. The misogynistic Taliban should not be privileged, and no red carpet should be unrolled to recognize them in international conferences.
On June 13, 2023, Meena Rafiq, a women’s rights activist, went on strike in front of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry in protest against the invitation and participation of the Taliban delegation to the three-day Oslo Freedom Forum. This women’s rights activist says that the Norwegian government gives concessions to the Taliban regardless of the anti-feminist policy of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and paves the way for the recognition of their government.
In the past, the Norwegian government invited Anas Haqqani and other senior Taliban leaders who are accused of war crimes to Oslo, and negotiated with them. This approach of appeasement with the Taliban by the Norwegian government proves that the claim of defending human rights and women’s rights is a lie.
After Meena Rafiq’s protest, more than seven Afghan organizations based in Norway, condemned the Norwegian government’s hosting of the Taliban, calling this support for terrorism.
The Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women, which is the only independent voice of deprived women in Afghanistan, had announced its objection to this conference in its press release. The SMAW asked all the organizations and figures defending women’s rights to demand the Norwegian government to prevent the return of the Taliban delegation until the release of all protesting women imprisoned in official and private Taliban jails or detention centers.
