By Somaia Valizadeh
Human rights defenders, particularly women’s rights activists, are frequently subjected to systematic gender-based violence within the Taliban’s prisons.
Hundreds of women in Afghanistan have been imprisoned by the Taliban in the past three years. These women had started protests in Kabul and other major cities of Afghanistan against gender apartheid, women’s lack of education and work, and their disappearance from society.
Lailuma Devletzi is a former member of the Jamiat Party and defender of women’s rights. She was one of the victims of sexual assault in detention. She resides in Finland along with her four children.
The Women’s Rights Defender was detained by the Taliban in Herat province on the 16th of September 2022. After spending 16 nights in detention, she escaped from prison on October 3, 2022.
A year and a half after her escape from the Taliban’s prison, she shared the atrocities committed to female prisoners in Herat.
Lailuma said that some parts of her legs were stabbed, and salt was sprinkled on her wounds.
She claims that more than 25 Taliban members have sexually assaulted and violently confronted her. Consequently, she is both mentally and physically ill.
She has retained the photographs of her torture that she captured after her escape, thereby corroborating the brutality used against prisoners. These pictures show that Devletzi’s body is bruised because she was tortured.
Even though she was able to move to a safer place, she couldn’t forget the “hell called Taliban prison.” She added that upon mentioning the days in detention, her hands begin to tremble.
She said the Taliban arrested her in Herat province because of her activities in securing women’s rights and being a member of Jamiat-e-Islami.
She was responsible for the women’s council in Chaharbulak district of Balkh province during the previous government.
Feeding on blood
Lailuma Devletzi claims that she slept hungry in the Taliban prison and ate her own clotted blood.
The former Taliban prisoner emphasized that the prison guards were entirely male. She said that the Taliban and their fighters were torturing women very badly.
One year and seven months after, she still hears the screams of the imprisoned women. She said that her psyche has been severely damaged and she has nightmares.
Freedom bought with bribes.
Lailuma Devletzi has escaped from prison by paying 750,000 Afghanis to a Taliban jailer.
This amount was given to the Taliban prisoner by her through an intermediary, according to her.
Devletzi and her children subsequently relocated to Iran illegally, and after a period of five and a half months, on May 31, 2023, she obtained a Finland visa and became a refugee in this country.
Later on, she suffered from the violence of her husband and the pain of the Taliban torture symptoms. Her husband said she should return to Afghanistan and divorced her later.
Devletzi was in Kabul when Afghanistan was taken by the Taliban. Thereafter, she lived in Kandahar for a year in an attempt to save her life, but she moved to Herat during a house-to-house search by the Taliban.
Subsequently, she was pursuing a degree in midwifery at an educational institution. Subsequently, the secondary girls’ school and all the universities were closed by the Taliban. Lailulma and some of her classmates in Herat planned protests to reopen schools and universities for females. Thereafter, at 9:00 PM, the Taliban took Lailuma away from her home.
When she was arrested, the Taliban beat her on the shoulders with a Kalashnikov, she told Kite Runner. According to Lailuma Devletzi, there is no place in the Taliban prison where the dignity and honor of women and their fundamental rights are protected.
Several women prisoners before it revealed that they were raped, tortured, and exposed in Taliban prisons.Lailuma Devletzi was injured with a knife, until today she is in pain. She expressed that she needs gynecological treatment due to injuries caused by the Taliban militants.
