Afghanistan
Seen in the press
Read our selection of press reports about this country. This is a short description of prison conditions on a national scale. It gives an account of the preceding year’s events.
Afghanistan : des manifestants décrivent les abus des talibans
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
Afghanistan: IEA releases 285 detainees from Kandahar central prison
The leadership of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) released almost 285 detainees from the central prison of Kandahar province on Friday, based on the order of the IEA supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. These prisoners had been arrested on charges of criminal offenses and drug addictio…
Afghanistan : selon l’ONU, les tortures continuent dans les prisons
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
Afghanistan: life in prison, looking to the future from behind bars
For many people, prison is only a place where criminals serve their sentence. But there are also prisoners who are transformed during their imprisonment, deciding to abandon their past and change their future. Recently the directorate of prisons initiated a new program called “Prisoners’ Literacy a…
Afghanistan: life inside Kabul's women's prison during Covid-19
Thousands of prisoners in Afghanistan have been released and pardoned as the country battles the Covid-19 pandemic. But in Kabul’s only prison facility for women, more than a hundred women, often with young children, remain behind bars. FRANCE 24 reports from Kabul. In Afghanistan’s overcrowded pri…Afghanistan: prison chief laments conditions in country's jails
In unusually frank comments on April 21, Afghanistan’s new prison chief Ahmad Rashid Totakhail complained to journalists about widespread abuses in the country’s prison system. Totakhail described problems ranging from the lack of a comprehensive database on the length of detainees’ sentences to se…Afghanistan: for more than 300 children, many older than 5, home is mother’s cellblock
A survey of Afghan prisons this month by The New York Times concluded that at least 333 children are imprisoned with their mothers nationwide, according to interviews with officials at 33 of the country’s 34 provincial prisons.