RASC: After the Taliban group came to power and implemented misogynist policies and their instrumental use of religion, unemployment and poverty along with the closed gates of schools and universities for girls and the absence of laws to protect women and girls from the Taliban group, the statistics of forced marriages has increased in the country.
Badakhshan is one of the mountainous provinces of Afghanistan, where after the domination of the Taliban group, marriages without the consent of girls have increased in a number of districts in this province.
Zarafshan was 13 years old when he got married; she says: “I was a victim of forced marriage; I was married at the age of 13. The age when I should have been busy with children’s games. I was like a bird that wanted to fly; but they clipped her wings and threw him to the ground.”
Sharifa is another woman who had no role in her marriage and says: “Every day I face a new limitation, I can’t even decide for my life.”Like other girls, I got married against my will and with my father’s decision.”
While in the past, the existence of laws, the judiciary, institutions supporting women, and women’s financial self-sufficiency had reduced violence against women, and women could defend their rights by taking refuge under the umbrella of laws; however, with the domination of the Taliban group, women have been deprived of their smallest rights.
Kainat, another resident of Badakhshan, worried about her uncertain future, says: “Every day women’s voices are silenced, forced marriages have also increased, and underage girls are married against their will.”
This is while the news about the murder and suicide of girls due to forced marriages in Badakhshan province has increased in the past year.
Simin was among the girls who were killed by her family after she refused to be forced into marriage.
In another case in this province, a boy and a girl who did not allow the wrong traditions of the society to destroy their lives finally ended their lives by throwing themselves into the river, out of fear of the family and the Taliban group.
In remote areas of Badakhshan, where people have less access to the facilities for publishing these events; such events happen more often.
