Alia Azizi had worked as a police officer with the Afghan government. She headed the women’s prison in Herat, Afghanistan, from 2019 until August 2021, when the Taliban regained power. On August 24, he received a call: the new head of the Taliban power at Herat central prison asked him to return to work. Two months later, she received another call, but no one heard from her; He disappeared after receiving death threats from prisoners’ families, according to his relatives.
Alia Azizi was one of 3,600 women that, between 2009 and 2021, the United States, Germany, Japan and the European Union supported with millions of dollars for the construction of facilities and the training of female recruits in Afghanistan. Their testimony is included in the latest report published by the organization Human Rights Watch: “Double betrayal: abuse against Afghan policewomen past and present”. In this report carried out through 24 interviews, women who served as police officers recount the abuses carried out by the previous government and the insecurity they experienced after the Taliban took power.
While employed by the previous government, hundreds of female police officers were also victims of sexual harassment and assault, including rape, by male colleagues and supervisors who were never held accountable . Former and current female police officers from Afghanistan and the countries where they are hiding or seeking asylum described to the organization the ongoing psychological distress and trauma related to these past abuses and their fear of reprisals from their families and the Taliban.
“The district police chief came to her house at night and raped her. Her husband was not there that day,” says a former agent whose identity remains hidden as a protective measure: “He cried in front of me. She said she could not file a formal complaint because she feared her husband would divorce her and lose custody of their children.
In the years before the Taliban returned, many women sought to work outside the home and join the Afghan National Police to have some autonomy, although that did not free them from resistance either. family. There was some stigma associated with the institution – particularly from more conservative communities – which viewed female police officers as “sexually lightweight,” the report said. The little education they received during their childhood, as well as the lack of employment opportunities, made them particularly vulnerable to abuse and continued complaints from victims increased this stigma. For all these reasons, many have chosen to hide their jobs from their families.
No one to protect rights
Between 2009 and 2010, the United States increased its troops, particularly women, in Afghanistan. However, no reforms have been promoted within the Afghan National Police. “Corruption was endemic within the police and judiciary, and both institutions had a reputation for a culture of bribery and abuse,” the report said.
Besides the abuse, the idea of promoting his position was a mirage. The report said 70 percent of the women surveyed had been victims of sexual abuse by their colleagues and, according to the organization, 33 police officers reported being fired and 51 blocked from promotion for refusing to have jobs. sexual relations with them. supervisors.
An anonymous official assured the organization that “recruiting more women to join the police would not help combat violence against women when they themselves are mistreated by other police officers within the force.” police “. Although the Gender Department of the Ministry of the Interior was responsible for investigating these abuses, some have described this body as a “token” institution.
“There was no one to protect our rights,” says another witness.
In interviews conducted by UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) investigators in 2012, female police officers said they rarely formally complained about sexual harassment and sexual violence because they “knew the “impunity enjoyed by senior male officers and fear of the stigmatization to which they would be victims.” and the risk of losing their jobs. Those who felt pressured to agree to sex often did so out of fear of punishment by male police officers.
After the Taliban took power
In the months since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, their security forces have carried out revenge killings targeting officials who were part of the previous government’s security forces.
HRW has documented 47 of these assassinations and, for its part, the UN has documented 218 extrajudicial executions of former army, police and intelligence officers, as well as 14 cases of enforced disappearances, most in the first months following the takeover.
Although the number of women in the security forces was lower, they are particularly vulnerable. The few who have returned to work say the Taliban treat them with suspicion, as if they are under investigation, and demand the phone numbers of their former colleagues. Additionally, they also face additional threats from their family members.
“The stress was real because some of our colleagues were found dead, even if it remains uncertain whether the Taliban were responsible or if they had family problems,” a former police officer told the organization. Others, like Alia Azizi, say they have received threatening phone calls.
Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, foreign governments have hosted several thousand Afghans who worked for the previous government, civil society organizations and media funded by donor countries. However, according to the report, “these represent only a fraction of those at risk in Afghanistan who need resettlement.”
Even before the Taliban took power, the United States had a special immigration visa program in place for members of the previous government’s security forces who worked with American forces. However, between 2016 and 2021, this program virtually stagnated and, as of March 2024, 130,000 applications remained outstanding.
The report also denounces the “poor record in terms of resettlement of Afghans” of the European Union and its member states. According to the International Rescue Committee, more than 250,000 Afghan refugees were in need of resettlement in 2023. However, only 329 were resettled within the EU.
While 13,000 Afghans have been welcomed through emergency evacuations in 2021, many remain in refugee camps in Greece or other countries. In this sense, the organization assures that the EU has not been able to “provide pathways to sustainable resettlement”, meaning that many families undertake the journey of irregular migration to obtain political asylum.
A former police officer who was the victim of telephone threats explains that, shortly after the Taliban took power, she and her family tried to reach Iran by road. Lacking visas, they escaped, were arrested and deported to Afghanistan. Back home, they decide to sell all their belongings to be able to pay the fees and finally obtain an Iranian visa through an intermediary. Intending to travel to the United States, the woman applied for another visa to Brazil, where she lived alone for 9 months. “I paid $3,500 for tickets, traveled through 11 countries and arrived in the United States. I applied for asylum and was granted refugee status. Now I’m trying to bring my family,” says the woman who finally arrived at her destination after crossing the Darién Gap, one of the most dangerous migration routes between Colombia and Panama.
“The oppression of women and girls by the Taliban hits former police officers doubly hard. Governments that have funded and trained women in Afghan police forces must also pressure the Taliban to end all abuses against women and girls,” says Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at HRW.
Although many former police officers managed to escape to neighboring countries, the majority of those interviewed reported suffering from psychological disorders and long-term trauma due to the abuses they suffered before and after the takeover. Above all, for not having found “psychosocial support adapted to their needs”, denounces the report.
HRW calls on the Taliban to “end all harassment and threats against former police officers and others who worked for the previous government and to credibly investigate incidents of violence.” However, it also emphasizes the duty of countries that had previously supported the programs.
