In Afghanistan, Women Face Electric Shock Punishment for Defying Hijab Rules

As the Taliban tightens its grip on the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan, the cost of even minor defiance continues to grow. According to victims and eyewitnesses who spoke to Rukhshana Media and More to Her Story, Taliban forces are using electric shocks as punishment for women accused of violating strict hijab rules — mandates that, since 2022, have required full body coverings and face veils in public.

Some women report being knocked unconscious while resisting arrest by the Taliban’s morality police, a force overseen by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Others say the same devices are being used inside women’s prisons to instill fear and maintain control behind closed doors.

Nafisa*, 20, was shopping for winter scarves with her sister in Kabul last October when the pair were confronted by four uniformed Taliban morality police. One demanded to know why Nafisa wasn’t dressed like her sister, who wore black clothing from head to toe with a face covering. The authorities then ordered Nafisa to get into their vehicle. Terrified, she gripped her sister’s hand tightly and tried to stand her ground as a woman working with the police pulled her away. 

“When I resisted, they gave me an electric shock. After that, I remember nothing,” recalled Nafisa, who said she was held overnight in a cold, dark police cell with eight other women and three girls.

One woman told More to Her Story and Rukhshana Media she had been beaten and detained for being improperly dressed, even though she said she was wearing full-length clothing. Several others said they were arrested for begging on the street, which is not against the law in Afghanistan.

Nafisa's older sister Zohal*, 24, stammered nervously as she remembered that day. “Nafisa fell to the ground right before my eyes and the Taliban treated her like a corpse, throwing her into the vehicle and driving away,” she said. “It was the worst moment of my life, and those seconds felt like hours. I kept asking people for help, but they walked away. No one dared to say a word to the Taliban.”

Both women said they were left feeling traumatised by the incident, and both subsequently took antidepressants for a period of several months. 

In March, the rights group Amnesty International called for a global ban on direct-contact electric shock devices, describing them as “inherently abusive” and warning they can cause serious injury and death. International policing standards state that electric shocks should only be used as a last resort and in self-defence — a standard that, according to Afghan women and girls, is now being repeatedly broken.

Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the hardline group’s stringent rules over women’s dress and mobility has been increasingly brutal, several women told More to Her Story and Rukhshana Media. Enforcement initially included mass arrests, first in an area of western Kabul dominated by the Hazara ethnic minority, and then grew to other parts of the country, according to research by the United Nations. Some women were released after a few hours, but others remained in custody for days or even weeks, the study found. Their release was often made contingent on male relatives promising to police the dress of their women relatives in the future.

A male eyewitness who spoke to More to Her Story and Rukhshana Media on condition of anonymity recalled hearing a woman scream at a Taliban checkpoint in central Kabul. As he approached the crowd that had gathered, he saw morality police attempting to force a woman into their vehicle. Several men in the crowd tried to intervene but were told by officers not to interfere. According to the witness, one officer then pulled a device from his pocket and held it to the woman’s neck, delivering what appeared to be multiple electric shocks until she lost consciousness and collapsed. Four officers then carried her into the vehicle by her arms and legs, he said. 

Another eyewitness described an incident near a Kabul shopping mall where Taliban officers appeared to use electric shock to detain a woman who was refusing to get into their vehicle.

“She was resisting a lot, saying, ‘I’m not going’,” said the witness. “Eventually, they used an electric shock on her. The poor woman collapsed to the ground, and they violently shoved her into the vehicle. The morality police are terrifying."

Nearly all women and girls who had encounters with morality police officers told More to Her Story and Rukhshana Media they were subjected to violence of some kind, at times without clear indication of what they were being punished for, or what laws they were breaking. The widely criticised Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice law, which was enacted on August 21, 2024, gives officers broad authority to confront women over their clothing and administer on-the-spot punishments. Yet even before the law was enacted, Taliban officers were already using electric shock devices against women, most notably on January 16, 2022, officers reportedly used the devices to disperse a peaceful street protest.

Wahida Amiri, a 33-year-old former detainee and women's rights protester, described the incident in an interview with More to Her Story and Rukhshana Media after the January 2022 event.

“Their armed forces surrounded us in an open area and took us captive,” she said. “The Taliban's treatment of women protesters in the streets was terrifying and horrific. They used teargas, fired shots into the air, and used electric shocks against women.”

The use of electric shocks on unarmed protesters constitutes a violation of human rights. However, among Taliban officers, the deployment of such devices appears to be routine, carried out without formal protocols, accountability mechanisms, or oversight to prevent abuse.

More to Her Story and Rukhshana Media also heard testimonies of women being subjected to electric shocks while in prison. In 2022, Zarifa Yaqubi spent 41 days in the custody of Taliban forces, who she says tortured her while using electric shocks and beating her with cables until she made a forced confession that they had protested against the regime under the direction of organizations outside Afghanistan.

Parwana Ibrahimkhil Najrabi, who spent at least a month in solitary confinement for protesting against the Taliban in Kabul in January 2022, said the group used electric shocks during her arrest.

For Nafisa, the damage has been longlasting. She still remembers the prison cell, and worries about the other women she shared it with.

“I don’t know how to go on,” she said. “I think I carry the Taliban prison with me everywhere. The electric shocks, the cold and dark room, the multiple accusations, and the women whose fate is unknown.”

*Names have been changed for safety reasons.