Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: About 95 percent girls and women in Afghan jails have been imprisoned over ‘moral crimes’ such as engaging in illicit relationships, said the Human Rights Watch (HRW).
In a Twitter trend aimed at human rights discussions launched last week by the US-based human rights advocacy organization, the issue of ‘moral crimes’ in Afghanistan came to the fore.
The HRW’s tweet said: “About 95% of girls in Afghanistan’s prisons are there due to so-called ‘moral crimes’ such as sex outside marriage.”
Heather Barr, acting co-director of Women’s Rights Division at HRW, wrote on her Twitter handle that these girls “should never have been arrested. They should be released immediately and all moral crimes arrests should halt.”
This comes as besides poor conditions in Afghan prisons, there have been numerous reports of harassment of women prisoners.
According to the figures of department of Afghanistan prisons, about 1,200 Afghan women are being held in Afghan prisons, some of whom have recently been pardoned by the president to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in prisons.
