RASC News Agency: British newspaper “The Guardian” reports a sharp increase in forced marriages in Afghanistan, attributed to the Taliban’s return to power and the subsequent prohibition of education for women and girls. Journalist Melissa Cornet, who spent ten weeks this year traveling across seven Afghanistan provinces, spoke with over 100 women and girls. Her findings, along with visual documentation by photojournalist Kiana Hayeri, paint a bleak picture of life for Afghanistani women under Taliban rule.
In their report, Cornet and Hayeri describe the Taliban’s control as an agenda that goes beyond mere oppression, likening it instead to an “erasure” of women from all spheres of public life. “The Guardian” notes a deeply troubling rise in forced marriages, describing a case in Nangarhar where a 14-year-old girl, deprived of her right to education, was compelled to marry her landlord’s son. The Taliban’s exclusion of women and girls from all areas of public and educational life, “The Guardian” states, reflects a systematic effort to remove women from Afghanistan society.
Numerous international organizations have expressed growing concern over the worsening conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban’s takeover, families increasingly marry off their daughters, who, stripped of educational and social rights, find themselves trapped in forced marriages, often as the only perceived option in a society where opportunities for women are rapidly diminishing.
