It has been almost three years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. In that time, women have become prisoners in their own homes and targets of violence if they venture outdoors alone.
Now, the United Nations is investigating reports of rape, gang rape, sex slavery and forced abortions of women held in Taliban jails.
Women’s rights advocates have long warned that women and girls are enduring appalling abuses under the Taliban’s autarkic regime
The reports, first published in a respected Afghan media outlet, are the first detailed accounts of women being systematically abused for sex by Taliban operatives and commanders.
The reports have drawn the concern of the US State Department and the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Richard Bennett, who has launched an urgent probe.
Bennett said the report published in May by Hasht-e-Subh Daily (known as 8AM) detailing shocking treatment of women detained on flimsy premises and locked up for months without legal representation or access to their families, potentially plumbed new extremes of abuse.
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