Women human rights defenders Tamana Zaryab Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimkhel abducted and disappeared

On 19 January 2022, women human rights defenders Tamana Zaryab Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimkhel were abducted from their houses in Kabul by a group of armed men. Three sisters of Tamana Zaryab Paryani, the youngest being 13-years-old, were also taken. Tamana Paryani, posted a video recorded moments before the men entered her house on social media, in which she identifies the men as Taliban and calls for help. Several Taliban spokespersons have denied their involvement in the abductions and have also claimed that Tamana Zaryab Paryani posted the video to get asylum outside of Afghanistan. The whereabouts of the women human rights defenders are still unknown.

Tamana Zaryab Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimkhel have been fighting for women rights in Afghanistan even in the context of violent suppression of dissent and activism. Days before their abduction, on 16 January 2022, they participated in a protest near Kabul University, demanding the rights of women to work, to education and freedom. The Taliban suppressed the protest and pointed firearms at the protesting women.

Women human rights defenders at the recently held Oslo Summit raised serious concerns regarding the abduction and disappearance of the five women, and called on the Taliban Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, to give immediate orders to release them. The European Union, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the United Nations Secretary General and the Permanent Mission on Afghanistan in Geneva have all expressed grave concern on the disappearance of the women human rights defenders and called on the Taliban to release information on their whereabouts.

On 23 January 2022, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the Taliban have the right to arrest and detain dissidents. Since their takeover of Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban have engaged in serious human rights abuses, including arrests, detention and torture of human rights defenders, as well as conducting raids on civil society organizations, banning the rights of women to education and work, beating protesters, and torturing or killing activists, journalists, minorities, and former government officials.

Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the abduction and continued disappearance of women human rights defenders Parwana Ibrahimkhel and Tamana Zaryab Paryani, and her three sisters. It believes that the women human rights defenders are facing reprisals for standing up for the rights of women in Afghanistan, and for publicly criticizing the Taliban. Front Line Defenders calls on the international community to demand that the Taliban immediately release the women human rights defenders and end all forms of harassment against them. The international community must also take into account the grave and on-going human rights violations in Afghanistan, and hold the Taliban accountable for the suppression of the rights of human rights defenders, women and minority rights.