Homeless Afghan women detained by the Taliban for begging have spoken of "brutal" rapes and beatings in prisons.

The women claimed that they have been sexually abused, tortured and forced to work in prison, and witnessed children being beaten and killed.

The Guardian newspaper published a report on Friday, November 29, in which women arrested by the Taliban for begging were interviewed.

All of these women said that due to their inability to find jobs, they had no choice but to beg in the streets to provide for themselves and their children.

Zahra, a 32-year-old mother of three, said that after her husband, who served in the army of the former Afghan government, disappeared, she was forced to move to Kabul and beg in the streets for food. Her husband disappeared after the Taliban came to power in August 2021.

"I went to the government offices in my area and told them that I was a widow and asked for help to feed my three children," Zahra said, adding that they said they couldn't help me and told me to sit next to the bakery and beg.

Zahra said that she was not aware of the Taliban's laws prohibiting begging until she was arrested.

“A Taliban car stopped near the bakery. They took my son by force and told me to get in the vehicle,” she said. Zahra claimed she spent three days and nights in a Taliban prison and that initially she was made to cook, clean and do laundry for the men working there.

She was then told she would be fingerprinted and have her biometric details recorded. When she resisted, she was beaten until she was left unconscious. She said she was then raped.
“[Since being released] I’ve thought about ending my life several times, but my children hold me back,” she said. “I wondered who would feed them if I weren’t here.

Another woman, Parwana, was begging in Kabul with her four-year-old daughter in October 2023. She was held in Badam Bagh Prison for 15 days and was raped and tortured in prison.

Parwana also said that she and two other women were raped while in detention, and that the attacks caused her severe psychological trauma and depression.

According to Parwana, the Taliban had even arrested children who were cleaning people's shoes in the streets. "The Taliban used to tell us women why you don't get married, beat us and forced us to wash dishes and clean up," she continued.

Along with multiple reports of rape and torture of women arrested under the anti-begging laws, former detainees also told the Afghan news outlet Zan Times that they witnessed the abuse of young children in prison, with one woman alleging that two children were beaten to death while she was in detention.

"No one dared to speak," she said. If we chatted, they would beat us and call us immodest. Seeing those children die in front of my eyes is something I will never forget."

The death of detainees rounded up under anti-begging laws is factored into the wording of the Taliban’s new law, in which Article 25 states: “If a beggar dies while in custody and has no relatives or if the family refuses to collect the body, the municipal officials will handle the burial.”
Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, women have been denied the right to work, which has led to an increase in poverty, especially in female-headed households.

On May 20, 2024, the Taliban's Ministry of Justice announced the law on collecting beggars and preventing begging.

The law was signed by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. The Ministry of Justice said in a statement that "according to this law, people who are healthy or businessmen and have a day's food are prohibited from begging."

With the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, unemployment and poverty rates have risen sharply, and the number of beggars, especially in the capital Kabul, has increased significantly. According to UN figures, about 24 million people in Afghanistan are in need of humanitarian assistance.