We will continue to fight for human rights, Afghan women activists

In January last year, 25-year-old Tamna Zaryab Priyani was arrested by the Taliban from Kabul. He was subjected to severe torture during his imprisonment for three weeks. In a conversation with DW, he told his story.

“I was tied up. My hands and feet were tied. They held me by the legs and a prison guard beat me on the soles of my feet. Sometimes they put my feet in water and gave electric shocks with wires until I passed out. They would put a plastic bag over my mouth and remove it only when I was about to suffocate.”

On January 2022, Tamannaah was arrested in Kabul at midnight and put in jail. For three weeks he was subjected to severe torture. His three other sisters were also jailed. Earlier, Tamanna had organized a demonstration against the Taliban.

The Taliban had accused Tamanna of violating several new laws, including burning burqas in public. The Taliban, who took over Kabul in August 2021, limited the political and social role of women and continue to increase restrictions on them. According to Taliban law, all women are required to wear hijab. In May last year, increasing the restrictions, women were asked to wear the burqa. The Taliban had put up posters in various Afghan cities, including Kabul, in which women who did not wear the burqa were described as animals.

Tamanna Zaryab Priyani studied law and worked as a journalist in a newspaper before the Taliban took over. Like many other women in Kabul, she refused to comply with the Taliban’s new restrictions. She was among the hundreds of women who took to the streets in September 2021 against women’s rights and the Taliban occupation. The Taliban crushed this demonstration by using force and violence. Tamanna escaped immediate arrest, however, shortly after, armed Taliban fighters entered her apartment where she lived with her three sisters.

In such a situation, Tamana gave proof of present mind and posted the video of Taliban entering the house on Facebook. Thus people all over the world came to know about his arrest. In such a situation, sentences like ‘help’ and ‘save my sisters’ lives’ made the whole world aware of this action of the Taliban.

The four sisters, Zarmina, Shafiqa and Karisma, were arrested along with Tamannaah and put in the same jail, but they had no contact with each other. They were also severely tortured for twenty-six days. According to 17-year-old Shafiqa, “I had never thought about death before. I was at that age, when such thoughts were foreign to me. But after being imprisoned by the Taliban, I could not think of anything but death.”

After intense pressure from human rights organizations and the international community, the Taliban released a large number of women involved in the protests on bail. In return for their release, the Taliban confiscated all details of their homes and other belongings and banned them from participating in protests, playing any political role or speaking to the media.

On February 13, Tamannaah and her sisters were allowed to go home, while the Taliban have now banned women from leaving the house without a full burqa and no mahram. Apart from this, girls and women are also prevented from getting education in college or university.

The arrest of Tamannaah and her sisters caused a stir on social media. The video of Tamannaah’s arrest attracted the attention of Germany’s Afghanistan evacuation program ‘Kabul Luftbrücke’, the editorial team of the women’s magazine ‘Emma’ and the German agency for international relations, GZD.

In October 2022, Tamannaah and all ten members of her family were transported to Germany via Pakistan and have been trying to assimilate themselves into the fast-paced life of Germany ever since. It’s been a year since they were incarcerated and then released, but the four girls are still haunted by fear and nightmares from the three weeks of brutal torture.

Tamannaah and her sisters are now safe in Germany, but they say thousands of women and men like them are trapped in the brutal torture of the Taliban. Even after their arrival in Germany, these women are being targeted by many supporters of the Taliban and these women are still facing accusations and even threats.

Zarmina mentions women protesting for rights in Afghanistan, her eyes fill with tears, she says that many girls who were sexually abused while in prison committed suicide, because He was afraid that “if people came to know about it, his family would be disgraced.”

Tamanna says, “We have fought for justice and equality, we have made sacrifices, but when we see our colleagues in Afghanistan, they are going through the same pain here.”