RASC News Agency: Local sources in Panjshir report that members of the Panjshir Clerical Council, affiliated with the Taliban, are pressuring residents to offer their daughters for marriage, seeking second, third, and fourth wives. According to credible accounts, Taliban clerics alongside officials from the Department for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have dispatched emissaries to various households, demanding that families surrender their daughters to Taliban members. Amin (a pseudonym), a resident of Panjshir, told RASC: “Members of the provincial Clerical Council, most of whom are originally from Panjshir, have been personally visiting homes, coercing families into handing over their daughters to their associates. Even the Taliban’s morality police have been actively pressuring individuals to provide wives for members of the Clerical Council.”
He further revealed that many of these clerics predominantly aged over 38 have resorted to threats, warning families that if they refuse, they will be persecuted by Kandahari and Helmandi Taliban fighters. “These so-called religious scholars are relentlessly seeking multiple wives, particularly teenage and young brides,” he added. Previous reports have highlighted similar practices by Taliban commanders in Panjshir, who have attempted to intimidate families into forced marriages. However, many residents have remained defiant, outright rejecting their demands.
Asadullah (another pseudonym), a Panjshir local, reinforced these claims: “The entire Clerical Council is preoccupied with acquiring multiple wives. They have repeatedly pressured people, but no one is willing to comply. Instead, locals view them as Taliban collaborators and ostracize them.” The Panjshir Clerical Council, an institution backed by the Taliban, plays a crucial role in consolidating the regime’s ideological influence in the province. Operating as a propaganda arm, the council actively works to legitimize Taliban rule and expand the group’s control over the region.
