The Devil Has Returned: Afghani Women Forced Back into Abusive Marriages

Admin GHRTV

Mar 8, 2023 - 14:40

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The Devil Has Returned: Afghani Women Forced Back into Abusive Marriages

(08.03.2023)

(Anouk Nolet)

Women’s Rights Researcher,

Global Human Rights Defence.

On this International Women’s Day, we are reminded to also pay attention to those women around the world who are facing severe violations of their human rights. Women in Afghanistan have been living in what the United Nations (UN) termed ‘gender-based apartheid’ as the Taliban’s austere interpretation of Islam as the law of the country is systematically and categorically violating the rights of Afghani women (Biswas, 2023). The latest blow to women’s rights in the country comes as international human rights groups have reported that divorced women are being forced back into abusive marriages under new Taliban rule (NDTV, 2023; FPJ, 2023).

Under the previous US-backed government, women were granted the right to legal separation and divorces were slowly becoming more popular (Biswas, 2023). Since the 2021 Taliban takeover, commanders have started annulling divorces and are blaming women who sought divorce for adultery. Divorce is now classified to only be allowed in the case where the husband is a “classified drug addict or has left the country” (NDTV, 2023; FPJ, 2023). This comes in the wake of other severe measures violently restricting women’s rights; women have been excluded from public life and education, they are prohibited from using public parks and they are forced to wear extremely conservative clothes (DIA, 2023). Now, they are also being forced back into marriages with abusive ex-husbands.

The UN Mission to Afghanistan highlighted that nine of out ten women in Afghanistan report experiencing physical, sexual, or psychological abuse from their partners (Biswas, 2023). Domestic abuse is endemic. Yet divorce itself is seen as more problematic and tabooer than the abuse. It is no longer considered a legitimate reason to end a marriage. Women are being forced back into marriages with men who have previously abused them and continuously do so upon return. Family courts that previously saw an increase in their number of women judges and lawyers have been stripped back into an all-male affair under Taliban rule, and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Human Rights Commission have been erased (Sarmini-Buonaccorsi, 2023). Shelter spaces and community centers are decreasing. Women thus no longer have any legal standing and they sometimes have no other choice but to go into hiding with their children (DIA, 2023). They have no place to turn to; those fighting being forced back into marriage have also immediately been dismissed.

The UN, which does not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of the country, has warned that poverty rates have doubled since the Taliban takeover and that the treatment of women and other human rights defenders in the country should fall under gender persecution, punishable under international human rights law (Schlein, 2023). Amnesty International has also appealed the UN Human Rights Council that an independent fact-finding mission is set up in the country to collect evidence of crimes to begin the prosecution of defenders (Amnesty International, 2023). Afghani women have reported that the “devil has returned” to their country (Sarmini-Buonaccorsi, 2023).

Sources and further reading:

Amnesty International. (March 6, 2023). Tijd dat de VN-Mensenrechtenraad voortdurende

‚meedogenloze misstanden‘ van de Taliban in Afghanistan aanpakt. Amnesty

International The Netherlands Niews. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from

https://www.amnesty.nl/actueel/tijd-dat-de-vn-mensenrechtenraad-voortdurende-

meedogenloze-misstanden-van-de-taliban-in-afghanistan-aanpakt

Biswas, S. (March 6, 2023). Afghanistan: Taliban govt annuls divorces, forces women to

return to abusive husbands. LiveMint News. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from

https://www.livemint.com/news/world/taliban-govt-annuls-divorces-forces-women-

to-return-to-abusive-husbands-11678103879390.html

DIA (March 6, 2023). Atrocity at Peak: Taliban Forcing Divorced Afghan Women To Return

to Abusive Exes. SheThePeople: The Women’s Movement. Retrieved March 7, 2023,