This article contains accounts of rape, torture, and suicide.
In the three years since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan, many accounts have surfaced detailing torture and sexual abuse in the country's prisons.
One of them grabbed global headlines in July 2024, after the British daily Guardian reported on the rape of a female human rights activist that was caught on video. The video, made by the Taliban, shows armed men raping and torturing the inmate. Apparently, the Taliban sent the video to the women after she was released in an attempt to blackmail her and ensure her silence. She managed to flee the country and send the video to Afghan journalists, with the story eventually making its way to the British paper.
"We reported on the Taliban raping and torturing female inmates a week before The Guardian," Afghan-Canadian reporter Zahra Nader told DW. The 34-year-old is the editor-in-chief of the online magazine "Zan Times." She launched the magazine in August 2022 to give a voice to Afghan girls and women in their homeland, with the publication relying on the reporting of a small group of female journalists........