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Girls are denied education. Then forced into marriage.
Shuhab Aryaee* authored this report for the Zan Times, translated into English by Rustam Seerat.
Shuhra* was in the eighth grade in Faizabad city, the capital of Badakhshan province, when the Taliban banned girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade. In February 2023, her father forced her into marriage. Shuhra, 15, recounts, “When I heard that my uncle wanted to propose to me for his son, I went to my father and begged him with tears in my eyes not to accept and let me continue my studies and find my way to university. But my father, with a stern and angry tone, said that girls’ education and going to university would remain a dream, and schools and universities would never reopen for you.” Nine months later, Shuhra is so unhappy with her marriage to a man she doesn’t like that she cries in solitude.
Shuhra isn’t the only girl forced into early marriages in the two years since the Taliban ended their education. Zan Times interviews with local sources reveal that 87 female students no longer allowed to attend the Halima Sadiya School in Badakhshan were forced into marriage during the year ending in August (no official or reliable statistics exist, as there are no women’s human rights organizations left in the country).
