The denial of women’s rights to education and work, coupled with the lack of supportive institutions, has led to threats, beatings, and even deaths for those demanding their inheritance rights. Many women in Herat report experiencing widespread domestic violence and losing their inheritance since the Taliban took over.
Women, families, and sources in Herat and Nimruz provinces say that since the Taliban’s rise, they have been denied their inheritance rights. When they sought their rights, they faced threats and beatings. Some women who pursued their inheritance claims were even killed.
Mina (pseudonym), a woman from Nimruz whose husband died in a traffic accident, is now responsible for providing for her family and two children. She says that after her husband’s death, she inherited a significant amount of wealth, and she had been working in a government department during the previous administration. According to this self-supporting woman, the wealth her husband left behind, which was in the hands of a businessman, belongs to her children. However, due to the Taliban’s rule and their hostility towards women, her brother-in-law threatened her and deprived her children of their paternal inheritance.
Mina told the Hasht-e Subh Daily: “My husband and I lived separately; he was in business, and I had a job too. Our income was shared. My husband died in a traffic accident, and a money changer held our joint wealth. Since I was employed under the Republic, there was no need to collect the money, and my father-in-law and brother-in-law, knowing that my husband earned this wealth and me, claimed it as their personal property.”
She explains that everything changed overnight with the Taliban’s rise to power, and her brother-in-law threatened her and seized all their shared wealth from the money changer. She says: “When the Taliban came and everything suddenly changed, my father-in-law and brother-in-law forcefully took all my wealth from the money changer and threatened me, saying that if I demanded my share or inheritance for my children, they would take my children away.”
After being threatened by her father-in-law and brother-in-law, this woman from Nimruz sought refuge in Iran. She says she hired a lawyer to claim her rights and her son’s inheritance, but due to her gender, her case was closed, and no institution has addressed it.
Meanwhile, Jamila, a young woman from Herat, says that after demanding her inheritance from her brothers, she was beaten. According to Jamila, her brothers threatened her. This woman from Herat adds: “My husband is unemployed. We were suffering greatly due to poverty. The only option I had was to claim my inheritance, but when I asked my brothers, they insulted me at their house, beat me, and then said if you pursue the inheritance claim, we will take away your right to live. They threatened to harm my children and my husband as well.”
Recently, a female teacher in the Karukh district of Herat province was stabbed to death by her brother for demanding her inheritance rights. Local sources in Karukh say this teacher was named Hafeza and was 30 years old. According to the sources, she was killed by her brother after demanding her inheritance.
The sources add: “About 50,000 Afghanis was Hafeza’s inheritance. She went to her brother’s house to claim it, but after asking for her inheritance, her younger brother grabbed a knife and killed her for demanding her rights.” According to the sources, Hafeza leaves behind three daughters named Roqia, Maryam, and Khair al-Nisa.
You can read the Persian version of this daily report here:
سقوط افغانستان به دست طالبان؛ گرفتن حق میراث تهدید، شکنجه و قتل را به دنبال دارد | روزنامه ۸صبح
