Case 831: The Rape and Torture of Elaha Dilawarzai
1st Edition: Investigation in progress.
A video that surfaced on Aug 30 accusing a former spokesman to the Haqqani-run interior ministry, Qari Saeed Khosti, of rape, torture and other crimes.
The crucial initial information that we found was the victims name, Elaha Dilawarzai, that she was a medical student at Kabul University, and that the marriage and abuse began roughly six months ago, possibly longer.
“Saeed Khosti filmed me, he threatened me to stay silent or he will publish the video. He was abusive, he raped me every night. Beat me up every night,” Elaha stated in the video.
Translation provided to 5THGEN by @Ashrafakbaba
“After I publish this video, maybe you won’t see me alive again. Maybe I will be killed. But, I prefer to die once than to feel like dying every day. Please rescue me,” she said ending the video.
She is believed to be in the custody of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, “which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban,“ and contact with Elaha ceased on Aug 31.
Khosti has denied claims of forced marriage, accusing her of demanding the marriage outside his residence, being irreligious and guilty of blasphemy against the Qur’an.
There is real potential that she will undergo a Sharia trial, under the Taliban’s flawed interpretation of Sharia, and be subsequently executed if found guilty. This is due to the simple accusation by Khosti of insulting the Qur’an.
The strangest thing about this is, even in western nations, women proposing is extremely rare and for this to have happened in the IEA, “which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban,“ it is far beyond any logical conclusion, if not delusional.
Furthermore, under the Taliban’s flawed version of Sharia, women are not allowed to leave their home without a male escort, something that is strictly enforced in Kabul due to Taliban’s presence being heavily focused in the nation's capital, so how could Elaha have been demanding marriage outside his residence as per corroboration here.
Following the investigation into the crucial initial information, we discovered a video from Feb 28 that positively identifies Elaha in a hospital emergency room in Kabul. The post also confirms Elaha’s accusation of forced marriage and rape, along with the beating. The post also directly implicates Saeed Khosti.
The interaction on this post has been minimal but shows that she has been a victim of this abuse since the very beginning of the six month period between the marriage and the video pleading for help.
Khosti was also implicated by an admitted acquaintance of Khosti claiming the relationship was “creating fire” and that beatings were acceptable in the marriage. All but directly confirming that Khosti beat Elaha.
An earlier video appeared in Farsi with a much higher view count; it has already been resurfaced and recirculated but we can’t find out how many times. Despite interactions with well known civil rights leaders a large swathe of people on the post had concerns over her safety.
Some minor misinformation occurred, whether intentionally or unintentionally we can’t tell, when a video we found on Abu Muslim Shirzad Twitter account was reposted by two verified accounts from Afghanistan.
The accounts used are just two examples of what amounted to many similar misinterpretations. These accounts claimed the video showed armed men intimidating Elaha and one claimed the video showed Khosti forcing himself into the home as well as sexually assaulting her however this is, from what we can tell, untrue.
We wanted to bring this up because the investigation needs to be told as accurately as humanly possible with the limited information available to us.
The video does, however, show that Khosti was clearly unwelcome in her home
This space is for the forensic investigation which is still on-going.
These are displays of how we’re going about the investigation. Purple and red shows potential swelling and will be elaborated on in further editions of the report along with further proof.
Here you can see official documents issued by the previous government confirming both the identities of the victim, Elaha Dilawarzai, and the abuser, Saeed Khosti.
As Elaha is believed to be in custody of the IEA, “which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban,” there is nothing that can put her in more danger than she already is, thus these documents simply confirm what we already know. Their DOB, names, identities and faces.
A friend and classmate of Elaha provided this wedding invitation with corroborating evidence matching it to the above documentation but also presents blatant inconsistencies with both sides of the story. This exact invitation was later picked up by podcast host and well known propagandist. This prompted the story to make the rounds on Afghan Twitter.
Many users were also able to quickly pick up the blatant inconsistencies between the supposed date of the marriage and what was on the invitation along with others.
We want to point out that all images of the invitation used have been the exact same image as you can see the shadow in the bottom right corner. This makes Zakaraya Hassani the likely source forte invitation.
The discrepancy in dates is important because it potentially shows that Elaha has raped months before the official wedding date. This is important because, like most countries, in the IEA, “which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban,” spousal rape is not recognised as a crime but pre-marital rape is. However, under the Taliban’s perverted interpretation of Sharia, pre-marital rape is consider adultery and a very serious crime.
If Khosti’s accusation of blasphemy caused Elaha’s arrest then, by Taliban law, Khosti should also be arrested for adultery based on corroborating evidence stated by alleged companions of Khosti and the date on the wedding invitation.
The video from the hospital confirms abuse, beating and rape, at minimum, six months prior to today and months prior to the wedding. Meaning they weren’t married at the time. This gives the Taliban an opportunity to display that, flawed or not, they’re consistently implementing their laws but it’s unlikely. More likely would be a deflection and potentially blaming COVID-19 for a delayed celebration.
An official response confirming the official wedding date is welcome if the Taliban are willing to assist in the investigation.
The anonymous friend and classmate of Elaha also elaborated on the situation claiming they hadn’t seen the victim since the beginning of the semester and that she had bruises around her eyes when she did however, due to the source being anonymous it is hard to independently verify this information.
Official reports from Afghan media state that Saeed Khosti threatened Kabul University about 40 days ago in an attempt to scare the university into allowing the victim to take her exams despite missing so many classes she became ineligible.
More investigation to come… - 5thGen