Taliban Torture: Divorced Afghan Women Forced To Return To Their Husbands

Kabul: In what can be described as a nightmare of the worst kind, divorced Afghanistan women are being forced by Taliban to go back to their husbands.

Lawyers told AFP that several women have reported being dragged back into abusive marriages as Taliban commanders annulled their divorces.

The Taliban, which swept back to power in August 2021 after the complete withdrawal of US troops, has imposed severe restrictions on women which the United Nations calls ‘gender-based apartheid’.

The 40-year-old Marwa (name changed for her protection), abused for many years by her ex-husband, has finally managed to go into hiding with her eight children after Taliban commanders tore up her divorce papers.

She was among a group of women who was granted a legal separation in Afghanistan under the previous US-backed government.

Women have hardly had any rights in Afghanistan at the best of times, and when Taliban returned to power, their fate was doomed.

“My daughters and I cried a lot that day.. I said to myself, ‘Oh God, the devil has returned’,” she told AFP.

She endured a fresh round of assault and beatings.

“He used to pull my hair so hard that I became partly bald. He beat me so much that all my teeth have broken… There were days when I was unconscious, and my daughters would feed me,” she said.

One day she gathered the strength to leave and fled to a relative’s house with her 6 daughters and 2 sons.

There are many more like her, some managing to escape from the clutches of violent husbands, but many not so lucky.