In Afghanistan, where the Taliban seized power on 15 August 2021, women were forced to beg due to the work ban and were subjected to sexual assault and torture in detention centres. According to Zan Times, a website for Afghan women, women said they had been targeted by Taliban authorities in the past fex months and detained under the anti-negging laws enacted this year. 

 

All of the women told the news website beacuse of unable to find paid work due to the labour ban that they had no choice but to beg on the streets for money and food for their children.

 

FORCED TO BEG

 

Since the Taliban came to power, women have been barred from most paid work, leading to increased levels of poverty across the country, particularly in households without men. 

 

In May, the Taliban introduced new laws banning "healthy people" with one day's food money from begging on the streets. A commission was set up to register beggars and categorise them as "professional", "poor" or "organised". According to Taliban officials, about 60,000 beggars were rounded up in Kabul alone.

 

RAPE IN DETENTION

 

A mother of three who was forced to move to Kabul and beg for food on the streets after the disappearance of her husband, who served in the former government's national army, said she was unaware of Taliban laws against begging until she was arrested. The woman, nicknamed Zahra, said she was forced to cook, clean and wash clothes for the men working at the centre where she was detained for three days; she was beaten until she lost consciousness and then raped.

 

Another woman, identified as Parwana, said she was detained while begging with her four-year-old daughter after her husband left them and was made to clean and wash dishes for 15 days. Parwana also said that she was raped along with two other women while in detention and that she was traumatised by the attack.