A report released on Monday by U.K.-based rights group Afghan Witness has revealed a significant increase in online abuse and hate speech targeting politically active women in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. The study found that abusive posts tripled, resulting in a 217% increase between June and December 2021, compared to the same period in 2022.

Afghan Witness, an open-source project run by the non-profit Center for Information Resilience, conducted in-depth interviews with six Afghan women and analyzed publicly available information from X, formerly known as Twitter, to investigate the nature of the online abuse following the Taliban's takeover. The team analyzed over 78,000 posts written in Dari and Pashto, the two local Afghan languages, that were directed at almost 100 accounts of politically active Afghan women.

The report highlighted that the spread of abusive posts online contributed to making these women targets. The women reported receiving messages containing explicit material, as well as threats of sexual violence and death. One interviewee stated, "I think the hatred they show on social media does not differ from what they feel in real life." The Taliban government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment on the report's findings.

The report identified four general themes in the abusive posts: accusations of promiscuity, the belief that politically active women violated cultural and religious norms, allegations that the women were agents of the West, and accusations of making false claims to seek asylum abroad. Additionally, Afghan Witness found that over 60% of the posts in 2022 contained sexualized terms such as “whore” or "prostitute."

Francesca Gentile, the project's lead investigator, stated, "Since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, social media has turned from being a place for social and political expression to a forum for abuse and suppression, especially of women." The Taliban's restrictions on women in public life, work, and education have sent a message that any woman who stands up for herself is fair game for abusers.

A female journalist, speaking anonymously, informed Afghan Witness that she had deactivated some of her social media accounts and no longer reads comments, as it affects her work when trying to reach out to online sources. The report also revealed that the majority of those responsible for the online abuse were men from various political affiliations, ethnic groups, and backgrounds.

The Taliban's harsh measures towards women, such as barring them from public life and work and limiting girls' education beyond the sixth grade, have created an environment where women are targeted online. The report's findings shed light on the alarming increase in abuse and hate speech against politically active women in Afghanistan, highlighting the urgent need for action to protect their rights and safety in both physical and digital spaces.