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Women desperate to divorce are being coerced into new Taliban marriages
Farshid Aram*authored this report for the Zan Times in Persian, and it was translated into English by Rustam Seerat.
The life of 14-year-old Fariha* included a childhood marriage, a decade-long effort to get a divorce, and finally, her murder. She was a young child when she married her cousin Shukrullah* in the Almar district of Faryab province. Their marriage was marked by family tensions and disputes, because Shukrullah had only paid 400,000 afghani out of the agreed 700,000 afghani dowry. Additionally, Fariha was constantly beaten by her in-laws. These tensions, especially the financial concerns, compelled Fariha’s family to seek a divorce for her and Shukrullah. That divorce was given on June 22.
Shortly after the divorce, she was shot and killed. Her brother, Abdul Qahar*, was identified as her killer by their father, Shah Mohammad*. “On this year’s Eid al-Adha, my daughter went to a relative’s house. Some misleading individuals contacted my son, Abdul Qahar, who is addicted and unruly and lives in Iran, accusing my daughter of running away from home,” their father recounts to Zan Times. “Upon hearing this, my son returned from Iran and, on the third night of Eid al-Adha at 1 a.m., shot her in her bed and fled to…
