Afghan Women Held for ‘Immoral Behavior’ at a Taliban Prison Speak Out | FRONTLINE

When the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan amid the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, the hardline group told the world that its government would respect women’s rights.

A FRONTLINE documentary filmed on the ground in Afghanistan over the past year uncovers a different — and harrowing — story.

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As the above excerpt from the new FRONTLINE documentary "Afghanistan Undercover" shows, correspondent Ramita Navai secretly recorded inside a Taliban prison courtyard, in the provincial capital city of Herat. There, she captured firsthand accounts from Afghan women who said the regime had jailed them for what it considered moral crimes, such as traveling without a male relative. Many women were held without trial, Navai found, their fates sometimes unknown to their families.

“They don't look after us here, but we can’t say anything,” said one woman, who told Navai her arrest three months prior was for “immoral behavior.”

When Navai asked if the woman’s arrest and offense had been officially recorded, another woman spoke. “There is no court,” she said. “There's been no court for three or four months.”

“Afghanistan Undercover” is a Quicksilver Media production for GBH/FRONTLINE in association with ITV. The producer and director is Karim Shah. The correspondent is Ramita Navai. The executive producers for Quicksilver Media are Eamonn Matthews and Ramita Navai. The executive producer and editor-in-chief for FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

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