The human rights organization Rawadari says that the civil resistance and peaceful activism of Afghan citizens against repression and human rights violations by the Taliban over the past five years have kept alive hope for a future based on human rights, equality, and human dignity.
On Saturday, August 15, Rawadari issued a statement marking the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the Islamic Republic and the Taliban’s return to power, emphasizing the need to continue and strengthen efforts to document human rights violations in Afghanistan.
The organization said that despite widespread restrictions and repression, Afghan women and girls, civil society activists, and other citizens have continued to resist and engage in peaceful advocacy to defend their fundamental rights and freedoms.
Rawadari added that civil society organizations, human rights defenders, media outlets, and journalists have also played an important role in monitoring the human rights situation, documenting violations, collecting and preserving evidence, and amplifying the voices of victims.
According to the organization’s report, between August 15, 2021, and December 31, 2025, at least 6,929 civilians were killed or injured in various incidents. These cases included targeted, mysterious, and extrajudicial killings; explosive and suicide attacks; explosions involving remnants of war; and military attacks by Pakistan.
Rawadari also said that during the same period, at least 399 former government employees and members of their families were killed in targeted, mysterious, and extrajudicial attacks carried out by the Taliban and unidentified armed individuals.
According to the report, at least 47 protesters, including eight women, also lost their lives during this period for organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations.
The organization further reported that during the first four years of Taliban rule, at least 6,043 Afghan citizens, including 78 female protesters, were unlawfully and arbitrarily detained, primarily by the Taliban’s intelligence and morality-enforcement authorities.
Among those detained were at least 646 former government employees, 643 civil society activists, journalists, and human rights defenders, and 1,366 individuals accused of cooperating with, belonging to, or having links to groups opposed to the Taliban.
Rawadari said that during the same period, at least 51 detainees died as a result of severe torture in Taliban detention facilities, while at least 171 others were forcibly disappeared. Those affected included former government employees, civil society activists, human rights defenders, and other civilians.
According to figures provided by Rawadari, Taliban courts during this period sentenced at least 2,423 people for various alleged offenses through methods the organization described as “extralegal, cruel, and inhumane.”
According to the report, these punishments included the public enforcement of qisas (retributive justice) and death sentences, flogging, and blackening the faces of accused individuals.
Despite these abuses, Rawadari emphasized that alongside the growing restrictions, civil resistance and advocacy efforts by women, civil society activists, and human rights defenders have continued both inside Afghanistan and abroad.
The organization, which was established by a number of Afghan human rights activists outside the country following the Taliban’s return to power, expressed hope that civil resistance to the existing restrictions and pressures would continue and contribute to strengthening international justice and accountability mechanisms, expanding solidarity, and increasing global awareness of the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
Writer:Salima Aryaei
