Afghanistan: Two Women's Rights Activist Released From Prison
On Tuesday, campaigners reported that two female human rights advocates and their relatives had been released from detention by the Taliban administration in Afghanistan, nearly three months after they were arrested for opposing the Islamist regime's harsh policies.
Activist Mina Rafiq informed EFE that Neda Parwani and Zholia Parsi were released on Monday. “I talked with them and their family members.”
A rights organization in Afghanistan known as the Spontaneous Movement of Protesting Women had ties to the two activists.
Amnesty International, a global rights organization, claims that the two activists, along with Parisa Azada and Manizha Seddiqi were tortured and ill-treated after being detained by the Taliban, who are the de facto rulers of Afghanistan, from Kabul province between September and November of this year.
During their conversation, Rafiq informed Parsi that her health was not good.
Several members of the Parsi family, including Neda and Zholia Parsi, were jailed in September and October together with four other women who defended human rights.
After seizing power in Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban rule severely limited the rights of women and girls, making it illegal for them to participate in politics or other public sphere activities.
The rights to equality, non-discrimination, peaceful assembly, association, and expression have all been severely limited by the Taliban.
Rights activists claim that the Taliban have arbitrarily jailed, tortured, and forcefully vanished dozens of women who have protested their policies.
In Kabul, Faizabad, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif, among other Afghan cities, women have peacefully protested against the Taliban, drawing the ire of the Islamists despite fearing detention.
The Taliban have been known to track down and apprehend women who have been out protesting. In a statement earlier this month, Amnesty warned that some women had been violently and at gunpoint taken from their homes or safe houses.
“Women arrested have been detained incommunicado and repeatedly subject to torture or other forms of ill-treatment.”
The release of Parwani, Parsi, and their family members was praised by Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur in Afghanistan.
“They should never have been imprisoned. I continue to urge the immediate release of Afghanistan HRDs, NGO workers, journalists, and others who are arbitrarily detained for standing up for human rights,” Bennet wrote on the social media app X, formerly Twitter. EFE.