The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has now demanded reasons for the continued detention of Zarifa Yaqoubi and other human rights activists,.UNAMA has further added that it is seeking to access and contact the detained activists and know their whereabouts. It has also stressed that the detainees must have the right to contact their family members even when these activists have been detained in unknown locations by the Taliban. UNAMA has urged this when the harsh treatment of Taliban forces toward human rights activists extremely deteriorates the human rights situation in the country after its hostile takeover of the country.
Previously, Taliban forces had arrested woman journalists and human rights activists which included Zarifa Yaqoubi on November 3. During the arrest armed male and female officers of Taliban forces barged into a press conference held in Dasht-e-Barchi a neighbourhood in Kabul.
Just after the arrest, the mobile phones of these detainees including Zarifa Yaqoubi were taken by force. Yet another woman rights activist Farhat Popalzai had been allegedly detained on November 8. As there has been no information about Farhat’s whereabouts since November 8, Khama Press reported citing local sources.
As per reports, events of detaining of human rights activists and women rights activists have not been good for the Taliban as they have been facing public backlash from social media users across the world. Social media users have been calling these detentions wrong and illegitimate.