Afghanistan. Taliban Has now found a new way to oppress women and create fear in their minds. In Afghanistan, women are now being forced to go back to their husbands who had separated and divorced after being fed up with their daily beatings and abuse. Marwa (name changed) is one of thousands of such women who are now hiding in different places along with their 8 children after this new decree of Taliban.
For years, Marwa had to bear the oppression of her husband, who even broke all her teeth. Had to face beatings for months. Locked up at home. His hands were broken and fingers were broken. However, later when she could not bear this pain, she got divorced under the previous US-backed government.
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Taliban canceled divorce
Some other women like Marwa had divorced their husbands during that time. However, after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, her husband claimed that he was forced to divorce, after which commanders ordered him to bring his wife back to his clutches. Marwa told AFP that my daughters and I cried a lot after this order from the Taliban. I said to myself, ‘Oh my God, the devil is back.
The Taliban government follows a strict interpretation of Islam and imposes severe restrictions on women’s lives in what the United Nations has called “gender apartheid”. Lawyers told AFP that many women were reported to have been dragged back into their abusive married lives after Taliban commanders canceled women’s divorces.
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Unconscious for many days, children used to feed
Narrating her incident, Marwa said that there were many days when she used to lie unconscious and her daughters used to feed her. She told that her husband used to pull her hair so hard that she became half bald. Used to beat so hard that all his teeth were broken. However, later she gathered courage and ran hundreds of kilometers away from her husband with her 8 children. Her children say that it does not matter if we are hungry. At least we are away from that brawl.
9 out of 10 women are victims of violence
Nine out of 10 women in Afghanistan are victims of physical, sexual or psychological violence by their partners, according to the UN mission in the country. Despite this, it is considered taboo for women to divorce in Afghanistan, and any woman who thinks of separating from her husband is not forgiven.