According to a report published in The Sun Online, Talibs have started crawling porn sites to compile a kill list of the Afghan prostitutes who were filmed during 20-years of allied rule in Afghanistan. As per the sources quoted by The Sun, several such videos where Afghan prostitutes have been featured made their way to popular porn sites. The Talibs are now all set to allegedly hunt these women down and publicly execute them or humiliate them for their own pleasure.
Reportedly, sources told the newspaper that women are often subjected to gang rape by the Jihadis before being beheaded, hanged or stoned to death. As strict laws and ‘morality codes’ are being imposed on women, they are expected to face brutal repression under the Taliban regime just like they faced before allied forces took over Afghanistan 20 years ago. Women who had sex outside of marriage were brutally tortured and executed in the 90s under the Taliban. Notably, the atrocities against women continued in the regions that were under their control in the last 20 years.
The source said, “The Taliban are displaying the height of hypocrisy with this horrific witch-hunt. They pretend to condemn pornography but are digging deep into the most obscure and deeply hidden adult sites to find videos that show Afghan brothels so they can identity and slaughter or enslave the women who worked in them. Because the videos show obvious location markers of the brothels, these women are now in serious danger of being kidnapped or murdered in the most horrific ways imaginable.”
According to reports, in June this year, Human Rights organizations have warned that there were hundreds of sex workers based in Kabul. Brothels were being operated from coffee shops, beauty salons and friends’ houses. The Sun quoted one such prostitute identified as Zainab, who said that she turned to prostitution to feed her five siblings.
She said, “I was 13 years old when my father died. My mother had long been sick, and as the oldest, I had to take responsibility for my family. I started working as a housekeeper, but the money was never enough. Most of the men are young, between 25 and 30 years old, and most of them are married. They know my employer and call her to arrange an appointment. Some men request to choose from several girls. They take 10 minutes, sometimes 20. Some use condoms, but not all of them do. Every time I’m alone in a room with a man, I am scared.”
Heather Barr, co-director for women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, said that during the time she spent with such women, she found that many were forced into prostitution by someone or because of their financial condition at home.
Atrocities of Taliban against women
Taliban has made it to headlines countless times for the atrocities against women. Since the regime took over Afghanistan after US Troops were withdrawn from the region, despite claiming they are reformed, Talibs have started taking unthoughtful actions against women. Women have been asked not to come to offices, and co-education has been banned in Afghanistan’s educational institutes.