KABUL, October 3 — In a devastating turn of events following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, the government has enforced a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade. This regressive policy has had dire consequences, contributing significantly to a troubling rise in forced and underage marriages involving Afghan girls, according to human rights groups.
Zarghona, a 42-year-old widowed mother of four, shares a heart-wrenching account of her three underage daughters, who were forcibly taken from her and married off to former classmates. With the closure of schools and universities for girls, her daughters—who had dreams of becoming nurses and midwives—were stripped of their educational opportunities and relegated to the confines of 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 recounted. Initially, the girls received religious education, but the situation quickly took a sinister turn.
A woman, ostensibly seeking to rent a room, began visiting frequently, and Zarghona soon realized that she was targeting her daughters. The situation escalated when a Taliban recruiter, a former classmate of the girls from the madrasa, demanded that her two younger daughters be given as wives to his brothers.
“When I rejected their proposal, they threatened me, saying I had to marry off my daughters to older men, or they would harm my son,” Zarghona recalled, illustrating the intense pressure she faced. Ultimately, she felt compelled to consent to the marriages, all without her daughters’ input. “For me and my daughters, the wedding was not a celebration; it was a mourning ceremony,” she lamented. “I had no choice but to surrender.”
The wedding was not a traditional Afghan ceremony, but a simple religious event conducted by local Mullahs. Zarghona’s oldest daughter managed to avoid forced marriage, but the aftermath of the others’ weddings was grim. Following the ceremonies, Zarghona was prohibited from seeing her daughters. She had to send money to them discreetly through prepaid mobile transfers, as their lives grew increasingly restricted.
“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,” Zarghona said, her voice heavy with sorrow.
Now 19, her eldest daughter has already given birth to one child and is expecting another, while her younger daughter, who has yet to become pregnant, is allowed to see a doctor. This rare chance allowed Zarghona to meet her daughter briefly in the doctor’s waiting area. “They had lost weight and looked terrified, with bruises marking their bodies,” she described, painting a stark picture of their plight.
In a desperate attempt to escape the painful reality of her daughters’ situation, Zarghona briefly traveled to Iran. However, upon hearing their cries over the phone, she returned to Afghanistan, only to face further violence. “Less than three days after I came back, they beat me and my daughters and even locked us inside our home,” she recounted.
Now, Zarghona has lost all contact with her daughters and believes their situation to be dire. “All doors for seeking help are closed to me. The government is patriarchal, and no organization supports women’s rights,” she said, expressing her deep despair.
The grim reality is that the Taliban have reportedly enforced over 5,000 forced marriages in just the past four years. Thousands of girls have not only been stripped of their right to education but compelled into marriages against their will. Human rights organizations and the United Nations have raised alarm bells, warning that the ban on girls’ education is fueling a cycle of domestic violence, poverty, suicides, and political isolation for Afghanistan.
Recent assessments by UNICEF and the World Bank indicate that more than one million girls have been denied their right to education since the Taliban regained control of the country. The implications of this policy extend far beyond education, threatening the very futures of countless young women in Afghanistan.
