Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday reported ongoing threats against Afghan women who had served in the police under the former government. While the current Taliban authorities are held responsible for these threats, the report also notes that policewomen faced sexual abuse and harassment while serving under the former government. The report urges countries that funded Afghanistan’s security forces training programs to resettle these women abroad.
A 2012 UN investigation revealed “widespread and frequent” sexual violence and harassment against policewomen under the former Afghan government. Female officers experienced different forms of violence including rape, attempted rape, and coerced sexual acts, but seldom reported these abuses out of fear of punishment from male officers and the damage to their reputation. T0 make matters worse, the gender department within the Ministry of Interior, which was supposed to hold perpetrators accountable, lacked the authority to investigate or dismissed complaints altogether, failing to protect victims.
N0t only have the current authorities failed to establish any mechanism for former policewomen to report sexual abuse safely, but the repeal of relevant laws and protective institutions also hindered their access to justice. Many former policewomen have been forced to conceal their identities and seek asylum abroad. Economic hardship, fear of Taliban persecution, and the trauma of previous abuses have severely impacted the mental health of these women, with some now requiring medical treatment for anxiety and depression.
HRW’s Afghanistan researcher Fereshta Abbasi stated that since the takeover in 2021, “former policewomen have had to flee after threats from the authorities and increased violence from families who opposed their working as police.” Yet, they are facing several challenges to resettlement abroad, such as strict application requirements, inconsistent and unclear processes, and lengthy delays. The group described that Afghan women were “doubly betrayed” – abandoned by the former government that ignored the abuse and by the donor countries, including the US, the UK, the EU and Japan, which spent millions on recruiting and training more policewomen since 2009 but failed to offer asylum.
HRW called on the Taliban authorities to cease all acts of intimidation, harassment, and summary punishment against former policewomen and urged the investigation of alleged human rights violations in line with international fair trial standards. It also called on donor governments to prioritize former Afghan policewomen for refugee resettlement, streamline relocation processes, and offer psycho-social support services.
After Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, the regime conducted approximately 218 extrajudicial killings and 14 enforced disappearances of former army, police, and intelligence service officers as retaliation. This compounded the long-standing harassment and violence faced by policewomen, who were targeted not only by criminals but also by their own family members. In 2008, Afghanistan’s highest-ranking female police officer was assassinated by the Taliban in Kandahar. In 2013, three senior female police officers were fatally shot by the provincial police in Helmand.
