Afghanistan: Arrests of activists and crackdown on journalists persists as the Taliban ramp up their controls on women

Civic space in Afghanistan remains rated as ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor in its new People Power Under Attack report published on 4 December 2024. More than three years since the Taliban seized power, the de facto authorities continue to commit human rights violations and crimes under international law against the Afghan people, especially women and girls, with absolute impunity. Civil society faces severe restrictions and activists have been arbitrarily arrested and detained for their criticism of the Taliban. Others have faced harassment, intimidation and violence and some have been killed. The Taliban have also raided media offices and detained journalists. Some activists have been tortured and ill-treated.

In September 2024, Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, directed its officials to enact a newly codified morality law, mandating women to travel with a male guardian, remain quiet in public, and entirely veil themselves. This latest assault on women’s autonomy and dignity continues a long-standing pattern of escalating restrictions, preventing women from pursuing education past sixth grade, seeking employment in most sectors, and gaining access to public spaces like parks and gyms.

The law sparked a massive outcry from rights groups and the international community. Afghan women inside and outside Afghanistan protested against the law by singing revolutionary songs on social media, taking to the streets in Kabul, and campaigning.

On 6th September 2024, a coalition of 90 Afghan and international rights groups renewed their appeal calling for accountability in Afghanistan, including for the Human Rights Council to establish an additional and complementary, dedicated independent mechanism to investigate past and ongoing violations and address decades of impunity for grave abuses. This mechanism should be empowered to investigate, preserve evidence, and identify perpetrators of abuses, including the Taliban’s widespread and ongoing human rights violations against women and girls.

Concerns around the new law were also expressed by the UN Security Council (UNSC) in a joint statement. On 18th September 2024, the UNSC held its quarterly meeting, during which the head of UNAMA presented a quarterly report on the situation in Afghanistan. Many delegates of the UN Security Council urged the Taliban to reverse its new deeply ingrained misogynistic morality law and other discriminatory practices against women

Addressing the 57th Human Rights Council on 9th September 2024, Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said a key factor underlying rights violations in Afghanistan has been the persistent lack of accountability over several decades.

During an enhanced interactive dialogue on 9th September 2024, Richard Bennett - the UN-appointed Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan - delivered a grim assessment of continued violations and abuses of human rights in Afghanistan, particularly against women and girls. Bennett highlighted the recent escalation of institutionalised gender discrimination and severe restriction on freedom of expression and media by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. He called for urgent international action.

On the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which occurred on 25th September 2024, the foreign ministers of Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada vowed to start legal proceedings against Afghanistan at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violations of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to which Afghanistan is a state party. Afghanistan will have six months to respond before the ICJ. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) will continue investigating human rights violations in Afghanistan, which could lead to the arrest of Taliban officials accused of human rights abuses.

Although the Taliban barred the UN Special Rapporteur from entering Afghanistan in August 2024, his mandate was extended for one year in a resolution adopted without a vote on 9th October 2024, in the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The Council requested the UN Special Rapporteur conduct a separate study on the Taliban’s sweeping morality law and present a comprehensive report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan at its fifty-eighth session.

In recent months, the Taliban detained Jawed Kohistani, a political analyst; social activist Hameed Qarloq and two civil society activists, Najib Watanyar and Ezatullah Rahim. The Taliban authorities also shut down dozens of disability rights associations in western Herat province. There were protests against Taliban repression while journalists were arrested and restricted, media outlets shut down and a TV station frequency was jammed.

Association

Since the Taliban takeover it has arbitrarily arrested, detained and tortured a large number of human rights defenders, particularly women. Those in detention are denied access to adequate legal or medical support or to regular visits from their family and friends.

Political analyst detained for several weeks

Jawed Kohistani, a prominent political analyst, was arrested and detained for several weeks by Taliban intelligence agents in Kabul’s Khairkhana area on 25th September 2024.

Known for his media appearances and outspoken criticism of the Taliban, his arrest drew widespread attention. He is one of the few political activists who did not leave Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Kohistani’s family was not informed about his arrest or whereabouts and expressed serious concerns about his health following his detention, noting that he underwent heart surgery in 2023 and suffers from high blood pressure.

Several human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, called for his immediate release. Amnesty condemned Kohistani’s arbitrary detention, highlighting it as part of the broader repression under Taliban rule against those expressing dissenting views.

Kohistani was released from Taliban detention on 15th October 2024. According to his family, his arrest was due to a “misunderstanding” but did not offer further details.

Education activist released after 11 months of torture and ill-treatment

Ahmad Fahim Azimi, an education activist and campaigner for girls’ education rights, was released on 26th September 2024 after enduring 11 months of torture and ill-treatment during his detention.

As previously documented, Azimi, the manager of the national robotic team, was arrested on 17th October 2023 with his colleague Sediqullah Afghan. According to Amnesty International, both activists were kept by the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) District 40 for interrogation. They were falsely accused of assisting girls from the national robotic team to leave the country, inciting women protestors, and organising protests. Both the activists and their families refuted these allegations.

On 1st April 2024, Azimi was convicted through an unfair trial, sentenced to one year of imprisonment and was sent to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison by the Taliban court in Kabul. Sediqullah Afghan was released in April 2024 as part of the amnesty to mark the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

According to Amnesty International, Azimi and Sediqullah Afghan were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment as well as being denied regular family visits and access to legal support and medical care. After Azimi rejected the court ruling on 1st April 2024, his case was subjected to further investigation by Kabul Public Security Court.

Detention of activists

On 13th November 2024, Taliban agents detained social activist Hameed Qarloq in Takhar province, northern Afghanistan. According to the sources, the activist was held in the Taliban Counter-Terrorism Department at the provincial police headquarters. He was reportedly collecting donations for the reconstruction of a school in the area after a fire, and his detention could be related to this activity.

The Taliban detained two civil society activists Najib Watanyar and Ezatullah Rahimi in the Dasht-e-Barchi area of western Kabul on 2nd December 2024. The reason for their detention remains unclear, but the two had participated in an advocacy event for women’s rights in the west of Kabul in November 2024.

Associations working on disabilities shut down

In September 2024, it was reported that the Taliban authorities had shut down dozens of associations in western Herat province that assisted people with disabilities. The organisations functioned lawfully, offering rehabilitation and capacity-building assistance to those with disabilities. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report, approximately 2.4 million people in Afghanistan, including women and children, are living with disabilities.

Peaceful assembly

Protests persist despite Taliban brutality

Despite the Taliban’s severe crackdown on demonstrations in the past three years, Afghan women have bravely continued to oppose the fundamentalism of the Taliban, often at great risk. In their efforts to challenge the Taliban’s brutality, they have faced arbitrary arrest, sexual abuse, torture and imprisonment.

On 11th September 2024, members of the “Afghanistan Movement to Change Women’s History” took to the streets in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul to protest the Taliban’s oppressive policies and demand their fundamental rights. They held signs with slogans like “Education, Work, and Freedom,” “Equality for Men and Women,” and “Taliban commits crimes, and the world supports them.”

Another protest was staged on the streets of Kabul on 16th October 2024, by the men and women members of the Afghan Women’s Movement for Equality. They called for an immediate end to the repressive gender laws, human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, and torture in Afghanistan.

On 8th December 2024, women held a protest after the Taliban's Ministry of Health informed the leaders of medical training institutes in Afghanistan about a new ban on women's education in the institutes.

Expression

Since their takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed increasing restrictions on journalists and media workers in the country, issuing over 17 directives that severely limit freedom of the press and access to information. Female journalists have faced greater restrictions compared to their male counterparts.

A joint report published in November 2024 by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office, OHCHR, documented 336 cases of human rights violations against media professionals between August 2021 and September 2024. According to the report, there were 256 instances of arbitrary arrest and detention, combined with 130 cases of torture and ill-treatment. An additional 75 documented cases of threats and intimidation have created a climate of fear.

Arrest of journalists

The Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) arbitrarily arrested Hekmat Aryan, Director of Khoshhal Radio Station, from his office in Ghazni on 29th September 2024, for discussing past Taliban suicide attacks in an audio recording that the radio station subsequently broadcast. Aryan was sentenced to one month imprisonment by the Taliban court. The Afghanistan Journalists Centre (AFJC) called the sentencing of the journalist “unfair” and has asked the Taliban court in Ghazni to reconsider its verdict and drop the journalist’s charges.

Mahdi Ansary, a reporter for the Afghan News Agency, was detained by Taliban intelligence agents on the evening of 5th October 2024, while returning home from his office. The reason behind Ansary’s detention remains unclear. However, the journalist has frequently reported on the killings and atrocities against the Hazara ethnic minority during the Taliban’s rule. He had previously been detained by Taliban police about a year ago while covering the anniversary of a tragic attack on the Kaj education center in Kabul.

On 4th December 2024, dozens of Taliban agents from the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) raided the offices of private broadcaster Arezo TV in Kabul, questioned staff members for four hours, and detained seven journalists and media workers. Women journalists were expelled from the premises, and the network’s offices were sealed. The Taliban accused Arezo TV journalists during the raid of collaborating with and reporting for exiled media outlets operating outside Afghanistan. The current whereabouts of the detained journalists remain unknown.

TV news outlet satellite frequency jammed

The Afghanistan International news outlet denounced the Taliban for jamming their satellite frequency on 5th September 2024. This marks the first instance of satellite jamming targeting the distribution of a TV channel in Afghanistan. Afghanistan International has been a crucial source of reliable, unbiased news for the Afghan people, particularly in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover.

Harun Najafizada, Executive Editor of Afghanistan International, stated, "The Taliban's jamming of our satellite signal is a desperate attempt to silence the voice of the Afghan people. It is a continuation of their systematic campaign to suppress independent media and deny Afghans access to vital information.”

Carlos Martínez de la Serna, the director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) program, said, “The Taliban’s decision to use this sophisticated technology is highly alarming, demonstrating the lengths they are prepared to go to prevent the free flow of information and news to the Afghan people.”

Restrictions on journalists and media outlets

On 21st September 2024, the Ministry of Information and Culture prohibited media outlets from live broadcasting political shows and criticism of Taliban laws. The media outlets are permitted to record political shows only with approved guests, and the pre-recorded version of the show will be aired after the Taliban adopts it. Any content of the political show contrary to Taliban policies or critical of the group or its officials must be removed; otherwise, the Taliban will hold the media manager, political show desk officer, editor-in-chief and guest accountable.

In some provinces of Afghanistan, including Takhar, Kandahar, Badghis, and Helmand, the Taliban imposed an official ban on taking photos and video recordings of official meetings and events. Based on Hibatullah Akhundzada’s decision, the airing of “living beings’ images” is banned in compliance with the Taliban’s morality laws.

Local Taliban authorities have banned female journalists from working in media outlets in the Daikundi province of Afghanistan.