![The life of women has become extremely restricted in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in August 2021.](https://static.globalissues.org/ips/2023/03/afghanmarriages-629x423.jpg)
Mar 24 (IPS) – The writer is an Afghanistan-based feminine journalist, skilled with Finnish assist earlier than the Taliban take-over. Her id is withheld for safety causes.Afghan women have been denied the suitable to attend college and college because the Taliban took energy in August 2021. However as if this was not tragic sufficient, many ladies have additionally been compelled to marry too early in life.
A mixture of poverty and the worry of ladies being compelled to marry the islamist fighters of the Taliban motion are the primary causes behind the growing charge of teenage marriages within the nation.
So as to save them from the Taliban, a bunch that violates their primary human rights, mother and father would somewhat marry off their underage daughters elsewhere.
Compelled marriage of underage women has been practiced in Afghanistan earlier than but it surely has elevated considerably because the return of the Taliban to energy in 2021, twenty years after they have been ousted by the U.S troops.
The Taliban have forcefully married dozens of ladies, typically utilizing intimidation, coercion, and dying threats. Additionally, the covid pandemic, closing of faculties, the disappearance of employment alternatives for girls and the cruel financial state of affairs has compelled households to marry off their teenage daughters as a way to cope. The dowry acquired from the wedding helps to feed the remainder of the household for a while.
In line with the UN Childrens’ Fund UNICEF, women are bought into marriage at the same time as infants. UNICEF estimates that 28 per cent of ladies are compelled into marriage earlier than they flip 18.
“I’ve even seen women married off on the age of 14 in one of many northern provinces”, says Zainab (title modified), a lady activist. She is deeply involved about women marrying under-age, saying it’s violence towards teenage women.
The Taliban have resorted to kidnapping women and threatening them with compelled marriage. Apart from, the Taliban collect data on the variety of single women in a household and if there are any, they need them for marriage.
They ship varieties to be stuffed out within the mosques, significantly requesting for data on women aged between 13 and 18, in line with Zainab. Households would due to this fact surrender their daughters to kinfolk for marriage somewhat than allow them to fall into the arms of strangers.
In Kabul and in different provinces, members of Taliban have even threatened to kill members of the family of under-age women who refuse to offer their daughters up for marriage and have compelled teenage women to marry males with two or three wives. Younger and educated women have had haunting expertise from such instances.
“My buddy is 15 years”, narrates Maria (title modified), “a Taliban commander of over 50 years, and already married to 2 wives got here and proposed to her. She turned him down. The woman’s household needed to flee within the evening to a hiding place with out even taking their belongings”.
In one other case, Marwa (title modified) in Kabul mentioned a member of the Taliban had despatched her first spouse to her household to suggest to a tenth grade woman, threatening to kill their son in the event that they refuse to surrender their daughter for marriage. The teenage woman’s father had no possibility however at hand her over. She was 30 years youthful than the person.
This story was produced by Studying Collectively, a voluntary community of Finnish feminine journalists. The writer is an Afghanistan-based feminine journalist, skilled with Finnish assist earlier than the Taliban take-over. Her id is withheld for safety causes.
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service