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The Cost of Love in Afghanistan
The Taliban imprison Rajab and Gulandam for love marriage, even if they lawfully married fifteen years ago.
Love stories in Persian literature often end in tragedy, as seen in the works of Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, whose popular tales like Lili & Majnun and Shireen and Farhad involve lovers facing obstacles from a powerful authority figure. The first female Persian poet Rabia Balkhi also faced similar circumstances, as her brother forbade her from marrying a servant, leading to her death by suicide.
In 2006, a couple from Balkh Province named Rajab and Gulandam fell in love but faced opposition from Gulandam’s brother due to religious and ethnic differences. The couple eventually married and had four children, but their happiness was short-lived. When the US-backed Afghan government collapsed in 2021, and the Taliban took control, the couple was captured and imprisoned for their ethnic and religious differences. The Taliban, being mostly Pashtun and Sunni, saw it as dishonorable for a Pashtun woman to marry a Hazara man (Rajab is Hazara and Shiite).
Under the Taliban regime, romantic love is forbidden, and public executions of those accused of adultery occur regularly. However, Rajab and Gulandam were legally married, and their story shows the cost of love when faced with racism and extremism. The tragedy of love in Afghanistan is not new, as seen in the tale of Rabia Balkhi, who once said: “If you want to continue loving, then endure every unwanted that comes along with it.”
