Taliban beat woman to death for not cooking them food; victim's daughter recounts the horror

Amid the Taliban's capture of Afghanistan, a woman is recounting a firsthand account of the torture her mother faced at their hands.

While numerous Afghans are fleeing the country to seek safety from the militant organisation's tyranny, those who haven't been able to do so are fearing for their lives every day. The women have been the worst victims of the takeover, which has forced all the female students to quit schools and colleges and lead a life of uncertainty.

The Taliban now insist that they will not repeat the barbarism of their previous reign. However, a woman recently spoke to CNN about the continued danger to women and girls' lives under the Taliban rule. Manizha (alias), a woman from a small village in northern Afghanistan, recalled the murder of her mother by the militant fighters in the weeks before America's planned withdrawal from the country.

Manizha revealed that she and her three siblings were with their widowed mother, Najia, at their home on June 12 when Taliban fighters knocked on their door. The men, who had previously also come to the house three days in a row asking for food, asked her 45-year-old mother to cook for 15 fighters again.

However, her mother denied it to them that day, telling them, "I am poor, how can I cook for you?" Manizha recalled about the incident, "[The Taliban] started beating her. My mother collapsed and they hit her with their guns — AK-47s."

Manizha yelled at the fighters to stop, but when they finally stopped the beating, they threw a grenade into the next room and left the house as it burned. Her mother succumbed to her injuries. Witnesses from the village also confirmed the incident, but the Taliban have denied the killing.

Civil rights attorney Kimberley Motley said about the impact of the new regime on women, "I'm not even seeing women on the street in Kabul. It's just disgusting. It is absolutely disgusting what's happening. I think they're afraid to be beaten. They're afraid to be forced into marriage. They're afraid if they go on the street on their own they'll be stopped and asked, 'Where's your male guardian?' "