The women prisons established by the Taliban represent yet another facet of the gender apartheid imposed by the brutal regime. Mary MacMakin, an American aid worker who was imprisoned by the Taliban for four days in July, commented, "The jail had four women to a room. New arrivals would sit down on the steps sobbing and sobbing." Taliban authorities refuse to release jailed women until they prove that they have learned passages from the Koran.
According to a report by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, several Taliban-operated prisons, all in poor condition, arbitrarily detain hundreds of women. In Kandahar province, a women's prison allegedly holds more than 400 women. One woman was imprisoned for speaking to a man in the street. The Taliban, which controls 90 percent of Afghanistan, has prohibited women from leaving their homes without a close male relative. Taliban authorities have beaten women for trying to go to work and for leaving their homes alone or without wearing a burqa.
Media Resources: The Times 29 July 2000 Stop Gender Apartheid in Af
5/22/2013 Immigration Reform Bill Advances In Senate - Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a sweeping immigration reform bill in a bipartisan vote of 13 to 5. . . .
5/22/2013 Afghan Women Arrested for 'Moral Crimes' Increases 50% - A new report by the Human Rights Watch shows that in the past 18 months the number of women in Afghanistan incarcerated for 'moral crimes' has increased from 400 to 600, a 50% growth.
Many of the women imprisoned for moral crimes were arrested running away from forced or abusive marriages and families, even though there is no law against leaving. . . .
5/22/2013 Army Commander Suspended for Adultery Amid Wave of Sexual Assaults - On Tuesday, Brigadier General Bryan T Roberts was suspended from his position as commander of the Fort Jackson, South Carolina training camp which trains approximately 60% of incoming female recruits pending an investigation into allegations of adultery.
Roberts was suspended following allegations of "adultery and a physical altercation." Colonel Christian Kubik, an Army spokesperson for the Training and Doctrine Command, told reporters "We don't have any evidence of any sexual assault. . . .
