Africa

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The group, Gafcon, says that its followers believe "the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy".

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It is estimated that the Taliban have enforced over 5,000 forced marriages over the past four years. Thousands of girls have not only been stripped of their right to education but compelled into marriages over which they had no choice. Credit: Learning Together.

By External Source
KABUL, Oct 3 2025 (IPS)

After the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, they banned girls’ education beyond the sixth grade. Human rights groups say the policy is a major driver of the rise in underage and forced marriages involving Afghan girls.

Zarghona, 42, a widowed mother of four, says her three underage daughters were taken from her and forcibly married to former classmates. After schools and universities for girls were closed, all three daughters, who hoped to become nurses and midwives, were deprived of education and confined to their home.

“To prevent my daughters from becoming depressed, I sent them to a madrasa (religious school) near our house, on the advice of neighbors,” Zarghona says. They received religious education for a year, but things soon began to change.

“One day, a woman came to our house under the pretext of renting a room, and after that, the frequency of her visits increased. I gradually realized that she was targeting my daughters.”

One day a Taliban recruiter, a classmate of theirs at the madrassa, followed the girls to her house and demanded the two younger daughters as wives to his brothers.

“When I rejected their proposal, they told me, either I marry off my daughters to the older men or they would harm my son, they threatened”.

Under pressure, Zarghona says she was forced to consent to the marriages without her daughters’ approval.

“For me and my daughters, the wedding was not a celebration, it was a mourning ceremony” Zarghona lamented, adding, “I had no choice but to surrender.”

The wedding was not a formal Afghan ceremony, but rather a simple religious ceremony conducted by the Mullahs. Her oldest daughter was not forcibly married.

Afterwards, Zarghona was barred from seeing her daughters. She said money had to be secretly sent to them through prepaid mobile transfers. Life became even harder for the daughters.

“Each day came with more restrictions on how they dressed and where they could go. I couldn’t defend them, and my heart was never at peace, she said, sad and embittered.

The older of the two daughters is now 19. She already has one child and is expecting another. The younger daughter has not yet become pregnant and because of that she was permitted to see a doctor, which also enabled Zarghona to meet her secretly in the doctor’s reception area. She said both had lost weight and were shadows of their former selves. Both had bruises and looked scared.

After being forced to marriage many young girls in Afghanistan are not allowed to go out. Credit: Learning Together.

Zarghona decided to go to Iran for a while to ease herself from the painful reality of her daughters’ situation. But when she heard their cries over the phone, she returned to Afghanistan. She says, “Less than three days after I came back, they beat me up and my daughters and even locked us inside our home.”

Zarghona adds that she now has no contact with her daughters and believes their situation remains critical. “All doors for seeking help are closed to me. The government is patriarchal, and no organization supports women’s rights,” she says.

It is estimated that the Taliban have enforced over 5,000 forced marriages over the past four years. Thousands of girls have not only been stripped of their right to education but compelled into marriages over which they had no choice.

Human rights organizations and the United Nations have warned that the ban on girls’ education is fueling domestic violence, poverty, suicides, forced marriages, and Afghanistan’s political isolation.

According to recent assessments by UNICEF and the World Bank, more than one million girls have been denied the right to education since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

Excerpt:

The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons

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