Women's Prisons

Women's prisons: a difficult discussion in Afghanistan. Revisions to the Afghan constitution in 2002 promised progress on women's rights. Laws are in place that protect human rights and gender equity in some very real ways. Unfortunately for many women, corruption, incompetence and inept execution is rampant within the Afghan justice system. Their rights are often trampled or simply ignored.

In many areas of the country, honor codes and morality laws still take precedence over the legal code and the rule of law that governs international human rights.

Women like these two are jailed for a multitude of reasons. Some are just and some are not. Today Afghan women are jailed for running away from arranged marriages or assisting runaways. Women that have been raped have been accused of adultery and jailed. There are those that have murdered their husbands believing life in jail preferable to a life of oppression, rape and torture.

The young children and babies of these imprisoned women often live in jails with their mothers until they are school age. Lack of education, stimulation and even enough food and clothing create an unimaginably poor start to these young lives.

Learn more about our programs for the women and children imprisoned in Afghanistan