Essential services for female survivors of gender-based violence in Afghanistan have been decimated following the Taliban's takeover of the country, a rights group said on Monday.
In 26 interviews, survivors and service providers told the London-based Amnesty International that the Taliban had closed shelters and released detainees from prison, including many convicted of gender-based violence offences.
Many survivors – as well as shelter staff, lawyers, judges, government officials and others involved in protective services – are now at risk of violence and death, the group says.
"Women and girl survivors of gender-based violence have essentially been abandoned in Afghanistan. Their network of support has been dismantled, and their places of refuge have all but disappeared," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary-general.
In August, Taliban fighters opened prison doors across the country after capturing urban centres; by mid-August, almost all prisons in the country had been vacated.
Shelters protecting vulnerable women and girls were also closed. These facilities provided accommodation, food, literacy training and vocational training for women and girls who had suffered from domestic violence by their husbands or other family members.
"As shelters closed, staff were forced to send many women and girl survivors back to their families, and other survivors were forcibly removed by family members," according to the organization. "Other survivors were forced to live with shelter staff members, on the street, or in other unsustainable situations."
Service providers have said that the most common cases of gender-based violence involved beatings, rape, other forms of physical and sexual violence, and forced marriage.
Amnesty's Callamard called on the Taliban to allow and support the reopening of shelters. She also urged the international community to provide immediate and long-term funding for such protective services and to evacuate survivors and service providers facing imminent danger.
