Over 60 individuals have been killed and 129 detained by the Taliban between August and September, reports say
About 30 Afghan women protested in front of Kabul University on Oct. 18, 2022, after authorities expelled students from the dormitories allegedly for breaking rules. The protesters claimed that all the evicted students were women in a move that comes as the Taliban has increasingly restricted girls’ access to education. (Photo by AFP)
A leading Asian rights group has called for the release of five prominent human rights defenders allegedly detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) in a press statement on Sept. 29 said Zholia Parsi, Neda Parwani, Matiullah Wesa, Rasul Abdi Parsi, and Mortaza Behboodi have been targeted and “unjustly detained” for their work.
These arrests mark an alarming escalation of efforts to suppress freedom of speech and peaceful assembly in the country, said the statement from Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso, FORUM-ASIA executive director.
Parsi is part of women-led movements protesting the Taliban’s policies and restrictions against women and girls’ rights and freedoms in Afghanistan.
Her arrest follows the detention of another woman protestor, Neda Parwani, alongside her husband and four-year-old son.
FORUM-ASIA said Parwani and her family’s whereabouts remain unknown.
The Taliban returned to power in the conflict-torn country in 2021 following the withdrawal of US troops, about two decades after their ouster by US-led forces.
Since then, the Islamist rulers have been accused of repressing human rights defenders, the group said.
In January, the Taliban arrested Mortaza Behboodi, a French-Afghan journalist, after he arrived in Kabul for an assignment.
In March, the Taliban arbitrarily arrested Matiullah Wesa, a well-known education rights activist. A day after his arrest, the Taliban raided his home and confiscated personal belongings.
In the same month, the Taliban arrested Rasul Abdi Parsi, a former Islamic studies scholar, for allegedly posting criticisms against the Taliban on social media.
Up to this day, all three remain under the Taliban’s illegal and unjust detention.
“The arrests and detentions of the defenders, whose whereabouts remain unknown, constitute multiple violations of civil and political rights. In a country where gross and systematic human rights violations are the order of the day, never before has the role of human rights defenders been more important,” said Diez-Bacalso.
“Thus, the victims have to be surfaced alive and released immediately without conditions,” she said.
She alleged that the Taliban broke its own promises of amnesty and “assurances of safety” and added the Taliban have been systematically dismantling Afghanistan’s civic space.
The Taliban continue to attack, harass, arrest, torture, and murder civilians. Just between August and September, at least 61 individuals have been killed and 129 have been detained by the Taliban, Kabulnow.comreported.
Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan has lost its legal system and human rights mechanisms, resulting in widespread abuses, impunity, injustice, and zero accountability, FORUM-ASIA said.
The forum called on the international community to hold the Taliban to account for “the continuously regressing human rights situation” in Afghanistan.
It demanded the immediate release of the five detained rights defenders and called for the lifting of all restrictions on the rights and freedoms of the people, especially that of women and girls as well as ethnic and religious minorities.
The group asked the Taliban to fully respect and abide by Afghanistan’s international obligations to uphold fundamental human rights and freedoms.