Afghan girls accuse Taliban of sexual assault after arrests for ‘bad hijab’

Reports surface days before UN summit on Afghanistan that will exclude Afghan women and debate on women’s rights

Teenage girls and young women arrested by the Taliban for wearing “bad hijab” say they have been subjected to sexual violence and assault in detention.

In more than one case the arrests and sexual abuse that young women faced while in custody earlier this year led to suicide and attempted suicide, reporters from the Afghan news service Zan Times were told.

In one case, a woman’s body was allegedly found in a canal a few weeks after she had been taken into custody by Taliban militants, with a source close to her family saying she had been sexually abused before her death.

The UN say that many women were detained by the Taliban for “bad hijab” in December 2023 and January 2024, following a Taliban decree that women must cover themselves from head to toe, revealing only their eyes.

At the time the UN called the arrests “concerning” and girls and women told the Guardian they had been subjected to beatings and intimidation while in detention.