A 19-year-old woman’s body was found in Kokcha river of Faizabad, the capital city of Badakhshan province after alleged gang-rape, according to multiple local sources.
Her name was Fatima, and her body was found 14 days after she went missing, with signs of sexual assault on her body, the sources reported.
“Fatima was student at Bibi Ayesha religious school in Faizabad. She went missing around one and half months ago,” a close source to Fatima’s family said.
Fatima’s classmate Somaiya*, said that her absence caught the attention of the school administrators, who contacted her family.
“Fatima’s father informed the school management that she had gone to her sister’s house in the Wurduj district of the province. However, after a few days, we heard that she had been killed,” she said.
One of Fatima’s close relatives, who spoke anonymously, said: “After Fatima returned from Wurduj, an unknown number called her mother and asked her to tell Fatima to return the books she had previously bought from Madrasa [religious school].”
“Fatima left the house on October 24 to sell the books, but she never returned, and her body was found November 6.”
After medical examination, the doctors in Faizabad provincial hospital confirmed that Fatima was gang-raped and then murdered, the sources added.
There have been reports of alleged gang-rapes of women by Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The victims of these assaults have either been reported to have committed suicide or been brutally murdered.
UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has also confirmed the Taliban’s involvement in the gang-rape of women within their prisons.
