Cases of forced marriages have been worsening in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country following the withdrawal of US-led NATO forces in 2021, with many women being forced to be married even when the Taliban supposedly banned forced marriages just months after seizing power.

The Taliban made me marry my boss: how one word led to a forced marriage | Taliban | The Guardian https://t.co/fFXBl3tsIA

— Fereshta Abbasi (@FereshtaAbbasi) January 13, 2025

Such is the case of a 19-year-old girl in Afghanistan last July 2024 named Samira (not her real name), who was forced to be married to her 42-employer Mohammad (also not his real name), who already has a wife and two children, while she was waiting for him at his carpet-weaving shop to collect her wages. 

While Samira was waiting outside, the Taliban’s “morality police” were patrolling around nearby. 

“I had to wait because the workshop was an hour’s walk from home,” Samira said. “The shop was near a main road. Unluckily, I was sitting right outside the door when the Taliban passed by and suddenly noticed me.”

Along with Samira, more than 20 women and girls worked for the carpet business in the basement of an unfinished building in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. They earned about 7,000 Afghanis a month. Because girls over 12 were barred from attending school and banned from other forms of employment, carpet weaving is one of the few areas where they can still work. 

Stories like this made up in the comfort of drawing rooms don’t help Afghan women – they only hurt their cause. What Afghan women really need is real support not fabricated stories

— Maiwand Amiri (@MaiwandAmiri91) January 13, 2025

Samira and Mohammad were later arrested and accused of being in an “immoral” relationship, and their families were contacted. Out of fear, the 19-year-old girl did not give the Taliban her father’s mobile number, and her sister and her husband came to the Taliban police station instead. 

Fearing for her life and worried that she might be imprisoned, Samira’s sister Yasmin (not her real name) told the Taliban authorities that they were engaged, with the 42-year-old’s family saying the same thing. Without any further questions or investigations, the Taliban forced the 19-year-old to marry her 42-year-old employer, with the only witnesses being Yasmin, her husband, and Mohammad’s father.

Shaharzad Akbar, director of the Afghan human rights organization Rawadari, said Samira’s story is not uncommon, but many Afghan women are afraid to share theirs.

“[In the minds of the ‘morality police’] they have to do something when they find a man and a woman together,” Shaharzad said. “Women are not supposed to be working with men, and so this forced marriage is their solution.”

They should consider themselves fortunate that the Taliban didn’t impose a harsher punishment for their illegal relationship. If they truly care for each other, marriage would be the right step.

— (@yarmok60) January 14, 2025

“The Taliban police’s power to marry two people is not something that is ban officials feel entitled to make decisions about people’s lives and liberties and there are no consequences – they are coming up with rules on the spot,” she added.

A spokesperson for the Taliban refuted the claims, saying that “this claim is incorrect. No organization or individual can force any sister into marriage. So far, this matter has not been brought to our attention, but if it is, it will definitely be investigated. Such a claim is not true.” 

However, Richard Bennett, the special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan for the United Nations, said otherwise and further argued that incidents of forced marriages in the country are rising.

“Many Afghans have informed me that forced and child marriages still occur widely with impunity, including with Taliban members, especially in rural and remote areas,” Bennett said.

Who believes a crap coming from these Jewish news?

— thetruthnevertold (@truth_nevertold) January 15, 2025

“The ban on girls’ education above grade 6 increases exposure of girls to abuse, including early marriage. These marriages often lead to more suffering for women and girls, including marital rape, abuse, forced pregnancy and forced labor.”